winter 2013
ASSISTING
AVEDON
A REMEMBRANCE OF AVEDON'S LIFE THROUGH THE EYES OF HIS ASSISTANTS
BEST OF 2012
TRAVELING THROUGH AFRICA WITH ANDY BIGGS
THE BEST THINGS ON EARTH 22 PAGE S o f m in d-blo w ing, d r o ol-w o rthy C AM E RA S, GR IP, GE AR AND MOR E!
$7.99 US/CAN
ALSO:
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
CALUMET//CREATIVELIVE// SHOOT STILL & MOTION// FIILEX, A NEW LED LIGHT// EMINEM// FOCUS ON FILM// 5 MODERN-DAY FILM CAMERAS//LOMOGRAPHY
AWARDS FOR THE BEST OF THE BEST IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO
jackeyes.com
eyewear
Innovation that Inspires The compact X-E1 is engineered to deliver extraordinary image quality. It starts with FUJIFILM’s proprietary 16.3MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor whose unique pixel array is designed to deliver unsurpassed image resolution and color accuracy. Choose from the newly expanded XF Lens lineup with two new bright, high-definition FUJINON X-Mount lenses including a 14mm F2.8 and an 18-55mm F2.8-F4 lens. The 18-55mm allows photographic flexibility, optimizes low-light shooting and coupled with the EXR Processor Pro, the X-E1 delivers high performance auto–focusing. Everything you need in one compact, beautiful camera system.
ROBERT K. JACOBS
“ I’ve retired my DSLR. With its spectacular color rendition, image size and sharpness, the X-Pro1 is now my camera of choice. Its interchangeable lenses make it versatile for any assignment, it’s lightweight, easy to grip, and comfortable. Of course like their films the camera captures what my eye sees.”
FujifilmXseriesCameras.com FUJIFILM and FUJINON are trademarks of FUJIFILM Corporation and its affiliates. © 2012 FUJIFILM North America Corporation and its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Photos Š 2012 Robert K. Jacobs
Inspiration. Innovation. Perfection.
HIGHLIGHTS Page 204
BEST
Page 142
Page 136
Page 24
PAGE 24
BIZ- BEHIND THE BIZ: Calumet’s new approach to business.
From a Chicago start to a world presence, how Calumet expanding its reach.
Page 46
PAGE 46
TECH- TREND: Shoot still + video.
PAGE 68
IMAGE-HISTORY: Eminem by Jonathan Mannion.
PAGE 136
Page 68
The making of The Eminem Show album cover art.
FOCUS- THE KODAK D-VOLUTION
The digital transition, one factory shutdown at a time.
PAGE 142
FEATURE- BEST OF 2012
PAGE 164
FEATURE- ASSISTING AVEDON
PAGE 204
Page 164
A comparison of different methods to shoot simultaneously still and video.
Resource’s awards for the best of the best in photography and video.
A remembrance of Avedon’s life through the eyes of assistants.
FEATURE- PRODUCTIONS OF THE WORLD: Botswana.
All the info you need for your dream safari photo.
CONTENTS PAGE 8 YOUR ESSENTIALS 8 12 16 18 168
Masthead Editors’ Letter RE:Sourced Shoot Talk Directory
PAGE 24 BIZ 24 30 31 32 33 34 36 38 40 41 42
Behind the Biz: Calumet’s new approach to business. Going Pro: Part V – The art of blogging. Tips: Increase Klout Score. Sell Yourself: The Groupon way. Portfolio: David Neff on Moby. You Are Here: Chicago, the Windy City. Stock: A stock community unfolds – Image Brief. Graph-Ic: What does Kickstarter do for you? SocioMediaPath: Social media aggregators. Get Smart: creativeLIVE. Client File: Megan Re, Food Network.
Page 82
Page 46 TECH 46 51 52 54 56 60 62 63 63 64
Trend: Shoot still + video. Sick App: VSCO Cam. Do It For Fun: Belair X 6-12. What’s in your closet? Sarah Silver. Deconstructed: Gaffers' tape. Mobile Photo: Shooting like a pro with your iPhone. Gear Test: Mola softlight. Gear Test: Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Lithium-ion battery. Do It With Style: Cloak camera bag. Gear Heads: Let’s there be (LED) light!
Page 46
Page 68 IMAGE 68 72 76 82 94 98 102 104 108 110
History: Eminem by Jonathan Mannion. Editor's Pick: Jessica Olm. Breaking In: Morgan Eim, conservation photographer. Photographers of the Week Winners: Lloyd Bishop, Natalie Obermaier, Gil Lavi. The Experiment: Camera-less photography by Oliver Warden. Speciality: Capturing sound, the live show photography of Chris Bernay. Contest: Viewbug, “In The Likeness Of The Great Masters.” Underage: Alex Stoddard. People in Motion: Triple Scoop Music – Elevating your soundtrack, legally. Crew Pro-File: Patrick Melville, hair stylist.
Page 118
Page 113 FOCUS 113 115 116 118 122 124 132 133 135 136
Focus: Film – The history, the gear, the demise and the future of film. Film – An exploration of some of the films that touched our hearts throughout time. How To: Polaroid transfer. The appeal of Lomography. Darkroom 101 – A 19th century alternative to digital photography. The film shooter. How To: Load a 35mm camera. Film Gear & Labs. 5 modern-day film cameras. The Kodak D-evolution as seen by Robert Burley.
Page 142 FEATURE 142 164 204
Best of 2012. Assisting Avedon. Productions of the World- Botswana.
218 222 226 228
Movie: “Chasing Ice” Book Club: Martin Schoeller, Doug Rickard, Martin Parr, Dan Martensen, Marc Asnin. Cause: 100cameras – Saving the world, one camera at a time. Flashed: Gizmodo event by Robert Whitman.
Page 218 ARTS
Page 204
Why Wait?
Our Rentals Make Your DSLR Dreams Come True Today! » Calumet’s Rental Service: An affordable way to have access to the latest cameras, lenses and lighting equipment.
» Expert Advice: Our experienced staff will provide technical assistance and advice on what equipment will work best for your needs.
» Huge Selection: We offer rentals on the finest professional brands in the business. Each piece of equipment is routinely cleaned and checked to maintain top performance.
» Cross Country and Worldwide Rental Network: Calumet has rental locations throughout the U.S., U.K., Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium.
Try-Before-You-Buy Program Whether it’s the newest Nikon DSLR or a cool new Canon lens, you can rent it from Calumet and see if it’s something you want to own. And, if you decide you want to buy it, we will credit you back a portion of your rental fee.
View our online catalogs at:
calumetphoto.com/rentals
RENTALS calumetphoto.com © 2012 Calumet Photographic, Inc.
EDITORS IN CHIEF Alexandra Niki, Aurelie Jezequel CREATIVE DIRECTORS Alexandra Niki, Aurelie Jezequel ART DIRECTOR Alexandra Niki DESIGN Rachael Tucker TECH EDITOR Adam Sherwin CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Trey Amick, Cris Bernay, Andy Biggs, Lloyd Bishop, Robert Burley, Ania Gajda , Mark Gordon, Morgan Heim, Jack Hollingsworth, JT Jones, Sebastian Kim, Dirk Kikstra, Gil Lavi, Alen MacWeeney, Dr. Elliot McGucken, James Macari, Jonathan Mannion, Daymion Mardel, Douglas Mott, David Neff, Greg Neumaier, Jeff Niki, Natalie Obermaier, Jessica Olm ,Dana J. Quigley, Matthew Reamer, Adam Sherwin, Sarah Silver, Earl Steinbicker, Alex Stoddard, Maynard Switzer, Nicholas Vreeland, Oliver Warden CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Janet Alexander, Aimee Baldridge, Andy Biggs, Sam Chapin, Skip Cohen, Michael Corsentino, Matthew Fennell, Charlie Fish, Chris Gampat, Raquel Gil, Jack Hollingsworth, Aurelie Jezequel, Matthew C. Kemmetmueller, Isaac Lopez, Dr. Elliot McGucken, Alexandra Miller, Caitlin Moore, David Neff, Jeff Niki, Halley Parry, Matthew Reamer, Justin Sedor, Adam Sherwin, Sarah Silver, Melanie Trombley CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Thomas Bloch, Kelly Kaminski, Mohammed Nadeemuddin, Shirley Hernàndez Ticona COPY EDITORS Janet Alexander, Isaac Lopez, Justin Sedor INTERNS Ricardo Angeles, Thomas Bloch, Marcus Cedeno, Raquel Gil, Marlot Hoevenaars, Alexandra Miller, Mohammed Nadeemuddin, Quentin Petit, Keith Peter Smith PUBLISHER - REMAG Inc. DISTRIBUTION - info@resourcemagonline.com ADVERTISING Alexandra Niki - alex@resourcemagonline.com Adam Sherwin - adam@resourcemagonline.com
Resource Magazine is a quarterly publication from REMAG Inc. info@resourcemagonline.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: $40 in the U.S., US$50 in Canada, and US$60 globally. For subscription inquiries, please email us at HYPERLINK “mailto:info@ resourcemagonline.com” info@resourcemagonline.com or go to our website and look for the subscription link: www.resourcemagonline.com SPECIAL THANKS TO: John Champlin/ LUX-SF, Mark Chin, Landon Garza and Patrick Liotta. We welcome letters and comments. Please send any correspondence to info@resourcemagonline.com The entire content of this magazine is ©2013, REMAG Inc. and may not be reproduced, downloaded, republished, or transferred in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. For more info and your daily dose of Resource, please visit our website: www.resourcemagonline.com And check out RETV, Resource’s easy to read online video platform: www.ResourceTelevision.com FIND US ON NEWSSTANDS ACROSS THE COUNTRY! EASIER YET, GET YOUR ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION AT www.resourcemagonline.com AND NEVER MISS AN ISSUE!
CONTRIBUTORS 2.
1.
3. 1. Matthew Kemmetmueller:
Matthew “the body” Kemmetmueller is a second-generation photographer located just outside of Minneapolis, MN. Successfully building his business, he is currently running a busy portrait studio (www.k-photography.com) as well as two sub-branded companies, Elusive Art (www.elusiveart.com) and The Little Black Booth (www.thelittleblackbooth.com).
2. Dr. Elliot McGucken: Before
becoming a SoCal surfer and photographer/videographer, Dr. Elliot McGucken studied physics—his award-winning Ph.D. dissertation on artificial retinas and enhanced CMOS photosensors is now affording the blind sight. His “Hero’s Journey Mythology” photo series has attracted over 75 million views on Flickr and SmugMug, while he researches new techniques for shooting simultaneously stills and video.
4.
3. Melanie Trombley:
5.
6.
Melanie Trombley likes going places. She likes doing stuff. She likes socks with cartoon animals on them. She likes producing rock solid photo shoots, anywhere in the world. Call her for your next photo production needs and see what socks are featured on her feet. See stuff at: www.melanietrombley.com
4. Chris Gampat: Chris Gampat
runs The Phoblographer.com and has been a photographer for years. He is a former paparazzi and wedding photographer, and has interned at Magnum. He likes shooting portraits, street photography, and exploring NYC. Chris lives in Brooklyn and is proud to say that he has slayed the Kraken. www.thephoblographer.com
5. Robert Burley: As a photog-
rapher, Robert Burley has sought to describe and interpret the built environment in which he lives. Burley’s photographs have been extensively published and exhibited, and can be found in numerous museum collections. He currently lives in Toronto and teaches at Ryerson University. www.darkness.robertburley.com
6. Greg Neumaier: Greg Neumaier is a New York-based photographer specializing in making things beautiful. He shot our Best of 2012 Awards and was excited to check out all the new products. When he’s not shooting, he can be found climbing at BKB or having a cold beer with other artists in Dumbo. www.gregneumaier.com or www.anywaymgmt.com
EDITORS
letter
For those of you who are not on our mailing list, I regret to inform you that you missed a classic video of Aurelie, Adam and myself doing the elf hop and rockin’ out under the mistletoe. We love to make an ass of ourselves around the holidays—mind you, only around the holidays! We’re a serious bunch around here (cue to people who know us doubling over in laughter). That being said, I would like to propose a toast: Let’s raise our glasses to the start of a new year, new beginnings, and a new Mayan calendar. Michael J. Fox in “Back to the Future” suggested that there would be floating skateboards and self-tying Nikes by 2012, but alas, none of this happened—we have to live within our modest present time. We live in an era of the individual. As I arrive to work day-after-day, I see the world in DUMBO (Brooklyn) evolve into a mecca of hipster-ish entrepreneurs with a new concept of “business” and a newer concept of “business casual-ware.” I will admit, I may fall into the hipster category myself. But what kind of hipster would I be if I didn’t put hipsters down?
My pessimism only hides my true optimism; I love the enthusiasm of this new movement of inventors, creators, and entrepreneurs. If it wasn’t for new thought and new ideas, Resource wouldn’t exist and the world of photography at large would no longer turn. Cheers to 2013!
And Aurelie’s toast and wish for the new year is this:
I’m writing this on December 21, aka “the end of the world no-show.” After a grueling crunch time, I have to admit that I was kind of looking forward to the apocalypse—at least I wouldn’t have to work anymore! Slightly disappointed to find myself still proofing, editing and generally speaking glued to my computer screen, and yet relieved to see another day, another year come up. A new dawn means that we have another chance to make things right. Will we do it? Here’s to hope. One thing is certain: things need to change. How many natural disasters do we need to finally clean up our act (literally)? How many guns before we see that, yes, guns do indeed kill people? How many people going hungry in the richest country on earth before people rebel? Sorry! I didn’t mean to go political on you but I just can’t help myself. In the US it’s often bad form to talk about politics; in France (where I’m from), it’s part of everyday conversation… In any case, I am hopeful for tomorrow. Terrible things are happening (as they always have), but beautiful things also are. It’s up to us to tip the scale. Here’s to 2013 (or 1434 or 5773 or the year of some animal or another, depending on your creed). Happy New Year! Here’s to the future!
PS: If you don’t want to miss seeing silly videos of us doing silly things, get on our mailing list: just go on our website or facebook page and sign up!
REDEFINING VIDEO AUTO FOCUS FOR PROFESSIONALS
2012.8.20
•REC [ AF ]
imulated
screen s
The new Lumix GH3 is at the leading edge of a new breed of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras that’s changing photography for multi-media professionals. Just touch any part of the image on the articulating OLED screen and it automatically becomes the focal point. You also get advanced AF tracking and pro-level rack focusing, so you can follow the action with confidence. Just another way we’re engineering a better world for you. Learn more at panasonic.com/LUMIX
ROOTNYC.COM | ROOTBKN.COM
443 WEST 18TH STREET NY NY 10011 212 645 2244 131 NORTH 14TH STREET BK NY 11211 718 349 2740
STUDIOS / EVENTS 24 EQUIPMENT DIGITAL STILL / MOTION MANHATTAN BROOKLYN
MANHATTAN BROOKLYN
443 WEST 18TH STREET NY NY 10011 212 645 2244 131 NORTH 14TH STREET BK NY 11211 718 349 2740
STUDIOS / EVENTS 24 EQUIPMENT DIGITAL STILL / MOTION
ROOTNYC.COM | ROOTBKN.COM
RE:SOURCED
By Janet Alexander
Shoot NYC: Resource’s co-founders, Aurelie Jezequel and Alex Niki, presented their Crew-
less Photographer’s Survival Guide at this year’s Shoot NYC. The interactive talk, combining Aurelie and Alex’s backgrounds in production and prop styling, respectively, aimed to answer the “what if one of your crew member doesn’t show up at the shoot?” question. How do you replace a producer for instance? (And what does a producer do anyway?) Photographer and set builder Rudy Le Coadic and wardrobe stylist Sabine Feuilloley joined in for live demos.
Hurricane Sandy: As the worst natural
disaster the eastern seaboard has ever seen, Hurricane Sandy filled the basement of our office building with 3.5 million gallons of water and left some of our contributors without transportation and power—but compared to the devastation experienced by so many others, we feel very fortunate.
EyeTime 2012: Assembled with the intent to publicly promote research, exploration and
investigation amongst today’s emerging talent, the Eyetime 2012 Contest was supported by the ICP (International Center of Photography), APA (American Photographic Artist), ADC (Art Directors Club), and hosted by The Morpholio Project. Just a quick re-cap: EyeTime is an application captured and recorded the amount and type of viewing time each image received. For every second an image or a collection was viewed on an iPad or iPhone, the entrant accumulated EyeTime. Collections in two categories—Emerging Talent and Future Voices–with the most cumulative EyeTime were the finalists. A guest jury, which included Resource’s co-founder, Aurelie Jezequel and Tech Editor and ResourceTV director/producer, Adam Sherwin, selected the final winning images.
Photo by Mikhail Kim
Play2Win Crossword:
Our Fall issue included our first crossword puzzle ever. Readers were encouraged to have fun solving photo-related questions and to submit their completed puzzle for the chance to win a new Gura Gear Bag. Thomas and Vera Morales were the lucky winners, and said “Love the bag! It not only carries my lens and camera, but allows additonal items to be carried safely.” Congratulations!
Jury Winners 1. Gerald Haselwanter - “Las Vegas Up” 2. Simon Chang - “Ashura, New Delhi, India” 3. Laurent Evrard - “Entry”
The Experiment:
Our recent Experiment article about stop motion inspired photographer Jena Cumbo to share with us her own stop motion efforts. She created an adventurous stop motion animated video—a pool party inside a watermelon--for Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty, a new clothing brand. Joining force with illustrator and editor Eli Heuer and designers R. Mackswell Sherman and Sara Jones, the video is now available on Vimeo.
Icon Guide:
Here’s an explanation of what the icons you will find throughout the magazine mean. Enjoy the Resource multimedia experience!
R RETV EXTRA
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
W
D
A
WEB EXTRA
DIGITAL EDITION
APP EXTRA
SHOULD'A RENTED FROM ARC…
| ADORAMARENTAL.COM | 212 - 627- 8487
ADORAMA RENTAL CO
NEW GEAR. KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF. GREAT PRICES.
SHOOT TALK: Words and Research by Janet Alexander
Our Shoot Talk this quarter features the latest photography gear as well as important events from the Winter. The timeline will guide you through some ofthe standout breakthroughs and must-attend shows.
New Photography 2012 Show | OCT 03
01o c t o b e r
5th annual world wide photo walk contest | OCT 13
Every fall since 1985, MOMA’s New Photography Series highlights new photography with diverse perspectives on this constantly evolving medium. See works by Michele Abeles, Birdhead, Anne Collier, Zoe Crosher and Shirana Shahbazi through February 4, 2013.
Heralded by Scott Kelby’s, President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, the annual social photography event invites guided groups of photographers to walk around, shoot photos, and submit their favorite image. Over 28,000 photographers participated this year.
Celebrating flickr’s 500,000th collection | OCT 08 The 500,000th image was licensed by Getty Images from Flickr. The gorgoues image was shot by a photo hobbyist from China, Jiangang Wang, and depicts a ship’s light trail in front of a Japanses development.
Google brings 360° panoramas to Android | OCT 10 The Android 4.2 came out with Photo Sphere, a 360-degree panorama app. The photos you take can be submitted to Google Maps for your own personal street-view.
gopro hero3 | OCT 16
Hasselblad opens design center in italy | OCT 10 The opening of Hasselblad’s new center, located close to Venice, was announced today. The first Hassleblad product designed in italy is a mirrorless, interchangeable lns camera, called Lunar.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
GoPro unveiled the Hero 3 in San Francisco—the newest addition to the GoPro action camera family. It boasts a sharper lens, improved microphone and built-in Wi-Fi. For those concerned with appearances, it comes in black, silver or white.
canon wins emmy award | OCT 22 At the 64th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards, Canon announced they were recognized for the large format CMOS image sensor in the EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera during the International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas.
Montblanc worldsecond contest | nov-dec The competition captures a moment across the globe. Captured simultaneously using the Montblancs mobile photo app, one instant in the world is recorded and uploaded to the Montblanc site and into a mosaic.
instagram App goes Web | Nov 5
photoplus expo | OCT 24-27
Creativelive in nyc | OCT 22-26 The inspiring two-day live broadcast from Canoe Studios in NYC featured professional photographers from around the world, including Lara Jade, Sue Bryce, Jasmine Star.
Kicking off a busy week for photographers, PhotoPlus Expo, the largest conference and trade show in North America, opened its doors. The event was attended by over 24,000 people and held at the Javits Center in NYC.
WWII Photograher Wilhelm Brasse Dies | OCT 25 Wilhelm Brasse, the photographer who famously preserved prisoner identity photographs he was forced to take in Nazi concentration camps, died at age 94 in Poland. His photographs are on display at several museums and memorials.
The demand of fans who wanted to see their Instagram profile and feeds online pushed the app company to unveil its online Instagram profile.
intensive adobe premiere cs6 workshop | nov 5-7
01n o v e m b e r
Santa Fe Workshops’ Will Van Beckum hosted a special seminar, during which he reviewed Adobe Premiere Pro’s new video editing features.
Photo courtesy of Associated Press
NPPA JOINS HARASSED photojournalists lawsuit | oct 24 The NPPA announced that it joined a number of photojournalists in their civil rights lawsuit against NYC and the NYPD for arresting and harassing photojournalists during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
paris photo | nov 15-18
hurricane sandy | oct 31 Out of the terrible devastation that followed Hurricane Sandy came one glimpse of stunning beauty: the now famous N e w Yo r k M a g a z i n e cover photo taken from a helicopter by Iwan Bann.
Since its start in 1996, Paris Photo has reigned as one of the most prestigious photo fairs (if not the most prestigious one), featuring both historical and contemporary photography. For the first time, Paris Photo will travel to Los Angeles in April 2013.
shootnyc | oct 25-26 nyc fotoworks | oct 23-25 Dune Studios hosted this year’s NYC FotoWorks portfolio review where professionals from both sides of the business came together to connect.
An informative forum for enthusiast and professional photographers alike, ShootNYC offered great speakers, like Chase Jarvis and Vincent Laforet, and hands-on demos.
SHOOT TALK: ”A Photographic Timeline of the Last Quarter” Page 19
SHOOT TALK: photonola festival | Nov 29 PhotoNola is an annual festival of photography held in New Orleans. It took place from Nov 29 to Dec 2, and featured braod ranging photo exhibits, lectures and workshops, with many free events.
michelle pedone’s lecture | dec 17 cosina discontinues zeiss ikon camera bodies | dec 7 With the silver version of the Zeiss Ikon already discontinued, the Japanese camera makers announced the black version of the Zeiss Ikon Camera will follow suit.
Rock n’ Roll Photographer Ken Regan Dies | nov 25 Best known for his iconic images of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, Ken Regan died of cancer.
APA photographer Michelle Pedone presented a series of her editorial and advertising work, and discussed the fine line between art and commerce at the SoHo Apple store in NYC.
Help-potraits for hurricane sandy’s victims | dec 8 Started by celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart, HelpPortrait is a community of photographers who this year went out the streets of New York, and took, printed and delivered their photographs to Sandy’s victims at no charge.
01d e c e m b e r WHAT’S COMING UP IN Q1
By Janet Alexander
JANUARY 8-10 2013
EOS CANON REBEL BASICS WORKSHOP SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
Canon Creative Center in San Francisco hosts a professional guide to Canon EOS users, with Canon professionals reviewing important features of the EOS Rebel. www.learn.usa.canon.com
JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 2 2013
MACWORLD/IWORLD SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
This is the ultimate event for all Apple products junkies. Taking place at the Moscone Center West, it is a celebration of the Apple world, with music, art, film exhibits and lessons thrown into the mix. www.macworldiworld.com
MARCH 7-14 2013
WPPI CONFERENCE EXPO LAS VEGAS, NV.
WPPI focuses on wedding and portrait photography. The one-week extravaganza offers seminars, trade shows, panel discussions and networking socials. www.wppionline.com
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
JANUARY 8-11 2013
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW LAS VEGAS, NV.
Manufacturers, developers, and suppliers of consumer technology show off their systems, products and services in an event that connects the technology industry and promotes innovation. www.cesweb.org
FEBRUARY 28-MARCH 3 2013
ANNUAL NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMIT AND TRADE SHOW JACKSONVILLE, FL.
The event is not only for networking, but also allows professionals and amateur photographers to participate in seminars and educational programs to develop a photography business. www.naturephotographysummit.com
That’s right. I rented from ARC.
We rent practically everything under the sun, photographically speaking. New stuff. Great prices. Knowledgable staff.
ADORAMARENTAL.COM | 212 - 627- 8487
ADORAMA RENTAL CO
Need equipment?
introducing
t he pe n t h o u s e s tudio 318 west 39th street nyc
4,200 sqft private penthouse 3,200 sqft rooftop deck
22´ ceilings 24´x 25´ cyc
45´x 25´ skylight motorized blackout shades
lounge & 18´ bar seating areas coffee bar with flatscreen tv
212.564.4084
|
info@go-studios.com
|
www.go-studios.com
lounge and bar seating areas
coffee bar with flatscreen tv
the nor th bay
near the entrance to the roofdeck
private bathroom with shower flexible hair & makeup/prop/wardrobe areas
all lighting, grip & digital on-site
twilight
behind the biz
Calumet’s New Approach to Business From a Chicago start to a world presence, how Calumet is expanding its reach. By Caitie Moore I Photos by Dana J. Quigley
T
his past October, Calumet Photographic celebrated the grand opening of its new Cambridge, MA location. In addition to opening up this new retail showroom, Calumet has acquired six new stores in 2012: three Penn Camera stores in the DC area, and additional stores in Chicago, Fort Lauderdale/Miami, FL and Rockville, MD. Resource talked to Brian Carroll, Calumet’s President, to discuss the exciting changes and expansion the company is experiencing.
The interview took place in the Cambridge store’s beautiful classroom, flanked by floor-length windows overlooking a courtyard. Carroll began his journey with Calumet in July of 2011, after previously holding executive and consulting roles in several major global corporations. Although he’s not a photographer by trade, he feels a kinship to the field—Carroll grew up in the ophthalmic industry where his father played a key role in applying photography to many medical-related applications. So when Colin Halpern, the new owner of Calumet (and best known for building Domino’s Pizza in Europe), called him to lead the company, Carroll was thrilled. “It represented two things: working with a dynamic owner and an opportunity to get back to my roots,” he admitted. Calumet is an international, photo-specialty retail company, with fifteen stores in the U.S. and seventeen stores in Europe. The company has seen success in its newest German locations—stores that have a very open and inviting atmosphere— and decided to bring that style to the Boston area. The newly redesigned Cambridge store is simply beautiful: the space has a warm and welcoming feeling that is well organized and less intimidating for new customers. The storefront is lined with floorto-ceiling windows that let through ample sunlight and allow window-shoppers to gawk at the 8,500 square-foot facility. Visitors are greeted with a wall of video monitors controlled from a Calumet-owned TV station located in the corporate office in Chicago. A full range of photographic products and services are available, from high-end to entry-level digital cameras, lighting equipment, bags and accessories, to a medium-format section. There is also a comprehensive equipment rental department and a new imaging department. Carroll shared the philosophy behind the new look: “The idea was to create an open, bright environment where people could try out the cameras and obtain expert advice. We provide solutions to anyone who is or wants to be serious about photography. It’s our passion and we love to share it.” For years Calumet has lived up to its slogan, “Where The Pros Go;” however, as the digital age opened the door for more people to explore photography, the company began expanding its services and inventory to better serve a wider range of consumers. Calumet is making significant investments to upgrade its stores and product offerings, all the while bringing rental services to new locations. As the only American photo-specialty store with a significant retail presence in Europe, the company aims to better utilize its international platform. Place your rental order at your local Calumet in New York City, pick your gear up in London, and return it to New York. Some customers are already taking advantage of this unique benefit today.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Dana J. Quigley: www.danajquigleyphoto.com
The newly redesigned Cambridge store is simply beautiful: the space has a warm and welcoming feeling that is well organized and less intimidating for new customers.
BIZ: BEHIND THE BIZ-“Jack BIZ: XXXX-“xxxxx” Studios” Page 25
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Place your rental order at your local Calumet in New York City, pick your gear up in London, and return it to New York.
BIZ: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 27
“When I came to Calumet, I discovered that it has a staff with great photographic expertise, access to the best photographic equipment, and considerable teaching facilities,” said Carroll. “I could not understand why Calumet was not involved in helping people complete the art of photography.” His goal is to bring photography full circle, from idea to print. He wants to place additional emphasis on process—from capture to presentation. So customers can expect top-of-the-line equipment with a focus on multimedia workflows, an emphasis on computers and software, color calibration and editing, as well as high-quality imaging services at many of Calumet locations. The company continues to grow partnerships in education by working with universities and carrying state-of-the-art equipment—this is vital to ushering in the next generation of photographers. They have also launched Calumet University, a program of classes and workshops taught in and near their stores across the country. Entry-level classes focus on technique and developing a personal vision—they even have a class intended to improve iPhone photography (if you can imagine)—while more advanced programs, such as Photoshop editing seminars and studio lighting with Boston’s very own Rick Freidman, are also available. “We strive to adapt and fulfill the needs of each community,” stressed Carroll, “and we draw from a pool of established photographers and instructors.” As photography continues to evolve, Calumet is committed to keeping up with the times. Its business model of modernizing existing stores and adding new products and services should provide professionals and photo enthusiasts alike with the best tools to pursue and expand their creative talents and passion.
Colin Halpern, Chairman of Calumet Holdings, Inc. (left) and Brian Carroll, President and CEO of Calumet Holdings, Inc. (right).
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
The Art of Blogging
[PART 5]
going pro
A guide by the best in the biz on how to keep your blog in tip-top working order. By Skip Cohen I Illustrations by Shirley Hernàndez Ticona
Over this article series about Going Pro, we’ve covered a lot of ground; since we talked about your website in the last issue, it’s time to talk about your blog. Everybody thinks they need a blog—what’s worse is how many people have them and don’t have a clue as to how to use them. People act as if having a blog gives them the right to talk about anything they want, at any time and without the slightest command of basic grammar. Here’s a prime example: a female photographer interested in children and family work wrote a post about the “kick-ass time” she had the night before at some little bar in town with her girlfriends. It’s written like a bad diary journal and includes images of her doing shots with the guys in the band. It’s a fraternity party gone bad. OK, now put on your marketing hat… We know that 98% of purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer are made by women. For the most part, that means moms! So, how many mothers do you think will find this photographer’s story about her drunken binge appealing and will hire her to shoot the Christmas portrait she wants done for the grandparents? If you think I’m missing the point here, you can stop reading and move on to the next article—I honestly can’t help you. But, if you understand what’s wrong in this picture, let’s get back to basics and come up with some solid guidelines so your blog can attract customers, rather than send them running to your competitors.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
1. POST REGULARLY. Whatever you’re doing, you have to be consistent. My suggestion is to post at least twice a week. The reason for consistency has two parts. First, you want to keep feeding the search engines with new material. Second, you want to build a following of loyal readers who are interested in what you have to say. The more you post, the more you feed the Internet and your fans. 2. KEEP YOUR POSTS RELEVANT. Remember who your target audience is, and write posts that appeal to their interests. Be helpful in the information you’re sharing. For example, a photographer interested in building a following of young moms could write about tips for better photographs of your kids, great places in the community to photograph,
or events coming up that are of interest to families, just to name a few. 3. IF YOU’RE GOING TO POST, THEN LEARN TO WRITE! At the very least have somebody proofread your posts. Read them out loud and remember punctuation and paragraph breaks. 4. KEEP YOUR POSTS RELATIVELY SHORT. All the research I’ve done suggests 300-500 words is the maximum length for a post. However, once you’ve established a solid base of readers, you can go longer as long as the post is relevant to your audience and their interests. 5. INCLUDE IMAGES. You don’t have to show every image you took on a shoot, and you don’t have to post images of every client you
TIPS
work with. Vary your posts and include just a couple of images of the event or client you’re talking about. Don’t let your blog become a popularity contest with every client thinking they’re getting posted. 6. DON’T RESPOND TO TROLLS! Every blog, no matter how good or neutral you think you sound on a topic, will eventually draw out a troll on the prowl to aggravate you and break your spirit. You’ll never win if you get sucked into the fray… Just let it go and don’t respond. Also, always set your blog up so you can screen the comments. Your
blog is not a public forum; it’s your personal marketing and communication tool. 7. BE HELPFUL! As you build readership, you’ll start to get more serious comments about your work, or questions about a process or something you might have talked about. As my buddy, Scott Bourne, demonstrates regularly, be generous with your time. 8. BUILD UP YOUR STASH OF POSTS. Everybody is busy and your best intentions might fall flat now and then, but don’t let that discourage you. If you can’t keep up with posting
regularly, try this approach: lock yourself up for a few hours and make a list of topics to write about. Next, find a day to devote to just writing. This way, you will build up your stash and have a few pieces to draw from in your pipeline. Now, here’s where it gets really sweet! If your goal is to publish a new post twice a week, then you’re going to write one fresh piece each week and pull one from your inventory. If you did your job and wrote twenty posts in advance, you can keep your blog going with fresh material for close to five months.
Your blog is a great opportunity to reflect your personality, but be selective. If you were meeting a new client for the first time and you wanted them to hire you more than any other client on the planet, what would you share with them? What would you do and say to impress them with your passion for photography, life, and documenting the human spirit? Your blog is an opportunity to demonstrate more than just your skill set—this is about opening your heart to your clients and your community.
“A blog is only as interesting as the interest shown in others.” Lee Odden
Increase Klout Score By Matthew Fennell
You’re wondering why your work isn’t getting noticed. It could be you. It could also be your Klout score. By measuring Twitter, Facebook, or whatever social network you’re linked into, your resulting Klout score calculates your social media influence. Scores range from 0 to 100. If you still use AskJeeves, you’re probably a 0. If you’re a 100, you’re dealing with 18 million followers on Twitter (I’m talking to you, Justin Beiber). Here are five tips to bulk up that Klout and start living in Beiberville: 1. CONNECT, CONNECT, CONNECT.It’s all about developing the brand of YOU. Link to other social media: people who follow you on Foursquare will find your Instagram will find your Tumblr will find your website. Branch out, and use those networks to the fullest. 2. TIMING IS EVERYTHING. Connect at the right time. Tools like SocialBro can help you uncover your followers’ tendencies, while others, like Buffer, will schedule your most important tweets and posts so they make the biggest impact. 3. IT’S THE CONTENT, STUPID. Find your niche and exploit it. Luckily, photographers are in the right niche for Klout as photos are among the most re-tweeted posts in the social media web. If you’re not sending out your own work into the maw of the twitter-sphere, you should be talking about it. 4. GET INTIMATE. Getting close to your network is the way to breakthrough your Klout threshold. Start a discussion on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Ask questions regarding your niche. Feedback, or “actions” on your posts, will cause your Klout score to bloom. 5. ENGAGE! There’s a good bet that your idols, if they’re still living, are using social media. Engage with them. Tweet at them, re-tweet them, join their conversation—but make sure you’re always connecting in way that will entice them to respond to you.
Author of six books on photography, including “Going Pro”, which this article series is based upon, Skip Cohen has been a fixture in the photographic industry for his entire adult life. He’s served as President of Hasselblad, Rangefinder/WPPI, and in 2009 founded Marketing Essentials International. His new venture is www.PhotoResourceHub.com.
BIZ: GOING PRO-“The Art of Blogging (Part 5)” Page 31
sell yourself
The Groupon Way Daily deal websites can help pack your studio (and fatten your wallet!). By Matthew C. Kemmetmueller Illustrations by Thomas Bloch
This fall, I was honored with the opportunity to speak at Kevin Kubota's Photographers Ignite in New York City. I'm always excited to share what does and doesn't work for my business, so I decided to discuss what I’ve learned about daily deal websites and how they can be an effective marketing tool. We've all heard photographers talk about how Groupon is the death of our industry and how LivingSocial provides the last dying gasp of breath to failing businesses, but truth be told, I've had a very different experience with these companies. I feel that the real issue photographers have with them has less to do with the fact that people use these sites for marketing, and more to do with poor business decisions that are hung out publicly for everyone to see. “Group deal marketing” can be profitable, and here are the things I have done to make my deals more successful.
Being a professional photographer means that this is no longer a hobby. Any promotion needs to generate enough income to actually be worthwhile. You need to plan deals with potential future sales in mind, as well as keep labor as low as possible without sacrificing quality or clients’ experience. Figuring out profit margins is actually really simple: revenue minus expenses equals your profit. However, by undervaluing their time as well as underestimating the total time that will be put into each session, photographers often don’t estimate their expenses correctly. You need to get paid for scheduling, shooting, processing, editing, selling and delivering product. So when planning your deal, you need to be thorough and honest about how long each step will take you. For instance, I only offer in-studio sessions, which allows me to keep costs down since there is no travel time or gas spent going back and forth to a location. Structure your deal based on a specific amount of time/images/backgrounds. It’s very important to stick to that specific format. Often times, my deals for boudoir sessions specify that the shoot only includes one outfit and two backgrounds. It is then an easy upsell to get clients to purchase more time/outfits/images and get more income for the additional work we are doing.
02. Workflow and systems are crucial. Should you decide this type of marketing is something you want to go after, know that the end goal is booking a ton of sessions; you need to be prepared to handle all the work that you're going after. You need to have a good studio management software (I am currently using StudioPlus), an awesome website, a PDF with frequently asked questions to send clients, as well as a totally kick-ass workflow for importing, developing, editing and selling images. Last February, my studio ran a deal and booked hundreds of sessions. The only problem was my employees and I were too eager to please and ended up shooting five to six sessions a day while promising a turnaround time that was simply too fast. It ultimately ended in our clients having a much more rushed session, me having to pay overtime to my staff and not putting the level of work into the images that we typically would. It was out of control. I realized this wasn't good for my business in the long run so, when I later ran a more aggressive deal, I deliberately included restrictions to make sure we wouldn't have the same issues again. Sessions are only available at 11 AM and 1 PM, Tuesday through Friday, and we open the entire second Saturday of every month. That was one of the smartest moves I've ever made. It gives my employees enough time to spend with each client as well as work on all the images, and gives our clients the standard of experience I want them to have. It has also spread out the work, making handling the volume very easy, while providing consistent cash flow to our studio.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Matthew C. Kemmetmueller: www.k-photography.com / www.elusiveart.com / www.thelittleblackbooth.com
01. Is the juice worth the squeeze?
"You need to be prepared to handle all the work that you're going after."
03. Crafting the perfect deal!
The perfect deal never ever, ever, ever, ever includes giving a high-resolution disc of images—ever! These daily deal websites should be used for client acquisition and not stand-alone sales; this means your business has to increase sales after the initial purchase of the Groupon. That really shouldn't be a shocking concept because every restaurant or department store has the same goal! A good deal should look complete, but in reality not include all of your most popular and profitable items. What I discovered works well is to sacrifice one image as a loss leader. I include a 12x18 print and a high-resolution file of that one image for a very low price and, I believe, the majority of our clients think that that's all they will buy—at first glance. After watching our studio shoot hundreds of these sessions, I know that the two most popular items are digital files of the entire session and albums. In the end, the key to success is leading people to placing a bigger order than they thought they would and, more importantly, wanting to. This should be done by delivering both an incredible experience and images that exceed clients’ expectations. If you think your way through these deals with future sales in mind, keep a watchful eye on your bottom line, and focus on a fast and effective workflow, you can make this work for you, too. We are doing an average of ten sessions a week and making nearly $500 in additional sales per session. Although this isn’t enough to keep a studio our size open, it is a very nice supplement to our year-end numbers.
PORTFOLIO
David Neff on Moby
Words and photo by David Neff
Moving hassles aside, relocation can mean new clients. A rolling photographer gathers no moss... though hopefully a client list. I relocated to New York City in 2003, and added another unique facet to my marketing campaign: social relocation. I met Yuko, an amazing illustrator in my building, shortly after getting evicted from studio #6 (something to do with my bad taste in music). This was just prior to my Brooklyn relocation for studio #7 (I’m now on year 10 in my NYC life and in studio #8 and apartment #8—each move bringing new friends and even sometimes, connections). I met Yuko when I knocked on her door looking for a temporary Internet connection (the modern-day cup of sugar). There was no WiFi to share, but over the next few months I made nice-nice with Yuko’s famous chihuahua, Bruiser, shared war stories over the water cooler, and had tea. It was inevitable perhaps that when she took on a column assignment for Illustration Magazine, a Japanese publication, I was standing closer than her Rolodex. The only concern she had wasn’t if I could do the job but if I could do the job without carrying my usual 500lbs of gear. She brought a pen, digital recorder, and notepad. I scaled back to two bodies, two lenses, two heads, and a pair of battery packs—the rest is history. Social relocation can be a considerable investment, can eat months of your life better used for vacation (taking pictures) or marketing (hanging out in drinking establishments). Though I can’t really endorse social relocation as an effective means of marketing, there is no denying that being nice to dogs of all breeds will get you work. David Neff: www.davepix.com / www.davetakespictures.com/wordpress
BIZ: SELL YOURSELF-"The Groupon Way” Page 33
you are here
Chicago- The Windy City A comprehensive guide to shooting, schmoozing and enjoying the city of Chicago. By Melanie Trombley, Producer/Free-lance Art Buyer I Illustration by Keith Smith Welcome to Chicago, crown jewel of the Midwest. Sure, it’s flat as a pancake here, but our skyscrapers act as our own mountain of amazing architecture. We also have gorgeous parks, miles of beaches (even in downtown Chicago!), the lake, countless fabulous restaurants and bars—not to mention a stellar music scene. Chicago is also home to an amazing array of photography and film artists, helping to keep the city’s permit department busy year round, no matter how blustery cold or blistering hot it gets. Take a walk around River North on first Fridays, or in Pilsen on second Fridays to experience what our gallery districts have to show from the local arts scene. Sit and dine and drink while enjoying a patio view of our gorgeous architecture in the warm months along Wicker Park’s Division Street, or have some German food whilst listening to an Oompa band in Lincoln Square in the winter months. Better yet, rent a bike and take a tour along our 170 miles of bike paths—you’ll be thankful it’s so flat here if you do!
how to identify a local: Chicagoans are casual and mostly laid back—not lackadaisical Californian laid back, but the grounded Midwestern laid back. And in the wintertime, you can tell how long a person’s commute is by the length of their down coat.
wine and dine your client like the locals do Handlebar- located near Wicker Park, this restaurant caters to vegetarian, vegan, and piscatorial diets with an international flair. Pizza Art Cafe- a hidden gem in Lincoln Square/Ravenswood. This small store front’s BYOB policy sets you apart from business as usual. Smoked meat atop woodfired pizza never fails to whet the palate. Bullhead Cantina- in Humboldt Park, this cash-only taqueria and bar’s hand-made tortillas paired with a generous whiskey list and selection of beers is most popular among the hippest of Chicagoans. My favorites are the Roasted Beet, Southern Fried Chicken, and Bourbon Glazed Tilapia tacos.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
clients to call: MAGAZINES: Chicagoist - www.chicagoist.com CS - www.modernluxury.com/cs Lumpen - www.lumpen.com The Reader - www.chicagoreader.com Time Out Chicago - www.timeoutchicago.com
AD AGENCIES: Gerard Design - www.gerarddesign.com Gyro - www.gyro.com HYConnect - www.hyc.com McGarry Bowen - www.mcgarrybowen.com Ogilvy - www.ogilvy.com Razorfish - www.razorfish.com Rhea + Kaiser - www.rkconnect.com
best drink spots
a gallery, record label, and venue that hosts live music and DJs seven nights a week.
If you’re looking to impress your clients with decadence, the Violet Hour in Wicker Park or the Whistler in Logan Square are fancy affairs. The former’s curtained partitions, inspired by early 19th century French salons and English clubs, foster conversation as much as the cocktails do. And if you’re looking for afterhours entertainment, the Whistler’s bar is also
Late-night nibbles and drinks are best at Telegraph in Logan Square and Rootstock in Humboldt Park. Wine and cheese is the bread and butter of Telegraph, especially since it claims to be inspired by the recipes of Europe’s leading wine producing regions. Rootstock, a self-described wine and beer bar, offers heartier eats and a charcuterie menu.
transportation With its wide sidewalks and spacious avenues, Chicago is a very bike friendly town! Bike lanes with a view appear along the lake front as well as trails leading out to forest preserves in the suburbs. All of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) trains run 24 hrs a day, though typically less frequently in the wee hours. Most buses run 24 hrs a day, and have bike racks. Bikes are allowed on trains anytime out side of rush hrs (7am-9am and 4p to 6pm). And on New Years Eve, it only costs 1 cent—you ride all night long for just a penny! Cabs are plentiful and frequent, I recommend using the Uber and Taxi magic apps, if you find yourself hailing to an empty street.
casting directors Paskal Rudnicke - www.prcasting.com Studio 203 with John Olsen www.johnolsenproductions.com And me again! Melanie Trombley www.melanietrombley.com
photo production companies Annika Howe - www.annikahowe.com John Olsen www.johnolsenproductions.com And me! Melanie Trombley www.melanietrombley.com
wrigley field
Forest Glen woods
dad s root beer factory
lincoln park zoo
Lake michigan Des plaines river
Smurfit-Stone Building
willis tower building
hair & makeup artists
buckingham fountain
Marcus Geeter -
Frank lloyd wright shouse
www.marcusgeetermakeupartist.com
chicago theatre
Kristin Lamar -
shedd aquarium
michigan Ave. Bridge
www.imdb.com/name/nm0482797/ Lillian Sakamaki - www.sakamakistyle.com
midway airport
Regal Theatre
Chicago state university
Calumet fisheries inc.
harborside international golf center
Melanie Trombley: www.MelanieTrombley.com
beverley Rail Station
places to shoot ProGear - www.progearrental.com Studio Rental Chicago - www.2255studio.com Space Stage Studios - www.spacestagestudios.com Cinespace Chicago - www.chicagofilmstudios.com Essanay - www.essanay.com
go to for equipment. Calumet - www.calumetphoto.com Dodd - www.doddcamera.com ProGear - www.progearrental.com
BIZ: YOU ARE HERE-“Chicago-The Windy City� Page 35
New Times Square Office of ImageBrief (one day!)
Simon Moss, CEO of ImageBrief
stock
A Stock Community Unfolds A non stock agency reinvents the stock business. By Janet Alexander I Photos courtesy of ImageBrief
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
A
aaah, the job of an image buyer. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except that in the case of the image buyer, the hay is about identical to the needle— making it a near impossible, if not heroic, undertaking. Well, thanks to ImageBrief, finding your needle is now faster and easier than ever. By connecting image buyers with photographers’ back catalogues, the eighteen months of software development and market research leading up to the company’s launch just this past March have resulted in a service that leaves you wondering, “How was this never thought of before?” The “a-ha!” moment for ImageBrief’s inception came from the collective experience of its four co-founders—David Peterson, Simon and Meg Moss, and Kris Martin. Running a photography agency for seven years, they realized that most professional photographers only make a fraction of their images available online, with much of it remaining locked away on a hard drive never to be seen. As for the images that are uploaded, they tend to be indexed using an outdated keyword-tagging system that can keep buyers but a single keystroke away from discovering the perfect image.
ImageBrief: www.imagebrief.com
Describing itself as “the first truly buyer-driven marketplace,” ImageBrief has essentially turned an image search into an image want ad. Image buyers’ requests are sent to registered professional photographers—a select group accepted based on the strength of their portfolios— who then submit a close match to, if not precisely, what’s been requested. In addition to an image description and format (i.e., black-and-white/color, vertical/horizontal), buyers specify a budget—ranging between a $200 minimum, which gives them access to 600 photographers, to $2,600 for 3,000—and a timeframe—from as little as 24 hours, for which they can expect 100 responses, to four days to reach over 175 answers. Although the fastest response to a brief has been fifteen minutes, standard response times tend to vary between 40 to 50 minutes depending on the brief and however long it takes a photographer to sift through their catalogs to find the right shot. If the client doesn’t select an image, they don’t pay. For photographers, the site is a rare opportunity to target their images to specific sales, rather than posting images in the hope that someone happens upon their collection and manages to find what they want. ImageBrief streamlines both the searching and the selling of photos to benefit buyers and photographers alike.
site involves its own license agreement stipulating the buyer’s terms; by submitting images, photographers are agreeing to the terms. Getting what you want is essentially dictated by knowing how to ask, so ImageBrief offers a list, The Secret to Writing a Great Brief, to ensure photographers don’t bother searching for images clients can’t use.
01.
Provide plenty of detail—what you're looking for, and what you don't want to see.
02. Try to be flexible in how your brief can be met—the broader the scope, the more likelihood that photographers can respond. 03.
Allow for creative interpretation—sometimes, a photographer may have just the perfect shot that you didn't know you wanted! Maximize the chance of finding something truly unique.
04. The more you are prepared to pay for an image, the more high-quality entries you will see!
When asked about the most ridiculous image request they ever got, it turned out to be one of the company’s first: a sand castle in the shape of a Christmas tree, with shells and seaweed for ornaments instead of regular tinsel and baubles. Not surprisingly, a photographer in Hawaii turned out to have it. This ability to meet such a high degree of nuance is the reason ImageBrief is proud to say, “We’re not stock,” buyers can now say the search is over, and photographers make the most out of more of their images.
With offices in New Jersey, London, and Sydney, ImageBrief’s pool of responses is sourced globally among nearly 5,000 photographers, of whom the largest share is in the U.S. The website’s services are available 24/7, but when it comes to the most notorious part of the whole image buying process—usage and rights discussion—ImageBrief steps aside to let photographers and buyers determine their terms. As a Rights Managed Platform, Image Brief pays 70% of the sale amount—roughly double the industry standard— while photographers retain control over the rights and pricing for each of the images they sell. Each brief on the
BIZ: STOCK-“A BIZ: GET Stock SMART-“Phoot Community Unfolds” Camp” Page 37
graph-ic
What Does Kickstarter Do for You?
Total Projects: 74,705
41.8%
A complete breakdown of Kickstarter's stats and where exactly photographers fit into all this!
(31,289)
3.29%
By Janet Alexander I Graph by Mohammed Nadeemuddin
(2,462)
27.96% (20,893)
%
$3.06m
$468.08k
$15.34m
$18.87m $2.16m
$4.92m
$29.29m $1.66m
$4.55m
$22.31m
$56,30m $1.43m
$5.05m
$50.08m
$56.35m
$49.88m
$71.03m
percentage funded 0%
1%-20%
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
21%-40%
41%-60%
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
61%-80%
81%-99%
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
$
money raised Less than $1,000 $1,000 - $9,999 $10,000 - $19,999 $20,000 - $99,999 $100k - $999,999 $1m + Raised
success rate
STATS
$4.36m
Live Dollars
$2.91m
Unsuccessful Dollars
$63.76m
$92.86m
Successful Dollars
$76.76m
Total Dollars
$2.38m
projects & dollars $13.73m
$
780
63 0
1,220 850
69
5,017
8 39.27%
62
210 223
77
474
170 2
34.58%
91
960
357 232
37.25%
8 1
903 310
6,879
29 56 2
54.15%
51
413
187 125
31.67%
130 7 0
262
31.28%
The Photographer's Turnover Rate
In the first year of being in business, 60% of photographers give up their activity. Of the remaining 40%, another 25% will fail within the second year. The ones who make it are the remaining 15% who endure through the third year. That’s a staggering 85% turnover rate. Source: "Fast Track Photographer" by Dane Sanders
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
1,646
1st YEAR
Successfully Funded Projects: 31,289
IT BEGAN AS ONE OF THE INTERNET’S BEST KEPT CROWDFUNDING RESOURCES, but since launching in 2009, Kickstarter has become a go-to for creative projects. Its all-or-nothing policy means it’s best to know your odds before taking a gamble on the generosity of others. With photography representing a mere 3% of all projects, there’s money to be made among a smaller competition pool of photographers. But since 50% of projects that use a video to solicit donations meet their fundraising goal, compared to 30% of those that don’t, photographers should consider getting behind a film camera.
2.8% (889)
25.3% (7,930)
2,462 Photography projects
20,893 Film/Video projects
37.9%
36.1%
(7,930)
(889)
$41m
$16m
$334m
$391m $186.33k
$47,599
$2.67m
$2.90m $865.84k
$112.83k
$5.76m
$4.78m
$204.85k
$903.63k
$4.97m
$6.08m $704.79k
$500.98k
$10.23m $331.26k
$1.03m
$9.02m
$11.67m $529.25k
$2.02m
$10.30m
$12.83m
$10.28m
$542.18k
$2.20m
$14.30m
$17.04m
*Information is current as of October 2012
ALL 2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
2,817
7,663
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
1,205
408
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
125
45
ALL 591
2 0
82
237
53
2,291 5 0
48.57%
118
239
77
510
170 2
40.39%
91
125
357 232
10 0
59
64.34%
88
45.89%
2nd YEAR
69
521 6 0
37
75
27.16%
135
366 34 0 0
101
37.48%
619
63 32 8 0 0 70.39%
603
3,691 3,749 2,255 307 14
21,273
43.82%
3rd YEAR
BIZ: GRAPH-IC-“What Does Kickstarter Do for You?” Page 39
SOCIOMEDIAPATH
Aggregators Social media aggregators, a new breed of app, gather all your networks into one place. Here are some of our top picks. By Justin Sedor I Illustrations by Thomas Bloch HOOTSUITE: Probably one of the most fullfeatured social media management services, Hootsuite shows users all of their social media feeds in tab form, while offering powerful analytics to help them get the most out of their posts. Basic version: free; Pro: $9.99/month www.hootsuite.com BUFFER: A simple, well-designed web app and Chrome extension that lets users fill up a queue of content that gets pushed out automatically at Twitter’s peak hours throughout the day, encouraging consistency and saving time. Free www.bufferapp.com BOTTLENOSE: Equipped with a powerful “now-engine” to show emerging trends and news items in real time, Bottlenose helps you target your social media activity to reflect what your audience is talking about. Free--public beta www.bottlenose.com
Chase Jarvis (left) and Craig Swanson (right) of creativeLIVE
FLIPBOARD: One of the prettiest aggregation apps out there, Flipboard turns your social media accounts and favorite websites into a dynamic digital magazine, so you can flip through your content on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Free www.Flipboard.com ALLTOP: This nifty web app gathers the latest news from top sources in any field and organize them into customized feeds. Great for staying on top of the latest industry buzz. Free www.Alltop.com STREAMIFIED: Organizes your social media and news feeds visually into a single stream, much like Flipboard—but also allows you to post directly to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Tumblr. Available as a Mac app, a web-based app, and on iOS and Android devices. Free www.Streamified.com
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
The creativeLIVE website!
get smart
creativeLIVE Online education from todays' top pros in a beautiful HD format.
By Janet Alexander I Photos courtesy of creativeLIVE
The creativeLIVE studios in Seattle
NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE CAN IT BE SAID THAT, “the world is your classroom.” Just ask online entrepreneur Craig Swanson and commercial photographer Chase Jarvis. During the past twenty years, Swanson has kept himself busy, engineering online training systems and founding CreativeTechs, a Seattle-based Mac support service company. Meanwhile, Jarvis was quickly realizing himself as, in his words, “an artist trapped in a jock’s body.” He dropped out of medical school, forfeited a PhD in philosophy, and quit a burgeoning professional soccer career to pursue his dream job as a photographer. “It wasn’t sexy to be creative ten to twenty years ago,” Jarvis explains. Without any quick form of photography education available at the time, Jarvis taught himself and learned by trials and errors, vowing, “If I’m ever in a position to change this, I will.”
creativeLIVE: www.creativeLIVE.com
Over the next fifteen years, Jarvis sought out Swanson’s creative consulting services and the two became fast friends over their shared interest in photography. In 2009, Swanson suggested that Jarvis start a blog and YouTube channel to promote himself. Jarvis had been vilified in the past for giving away trade secrets, but he trusted Swanson enough to take a chance. As a devoted fan following eager to learn from his experiences began to develop, Jarvis realized in an “a-ha!” moment fashion, “Wow, I’m tapped in now.” Near the end of that same year, Jarvis put his faith to the test by conducting the first live broadcast of a commercial shoot, filming himself in real-time as he was photographing a band. The eight-hour video was the first of its kind and attracted 25,000 viewers. Realizing the overwhelming demand for free photography education, Jarvis and Swanson began “whiteboarding” on the weekends, figuring out how to connect entrepreneurs, creatives, and educational platforms. By combining Jarvis’ fan base with Swanson’s web knowledge, creativeLIVE was born in 2010. Its free, live-streaming video classes are available to anybody anywhere, but as Swanson explains, they are intended to cater especially to “creative entrepreneurs—those who want to build a sustainable life around their passion.” Unlike other online instructional videos, creativeLIVE workshops are long-form, lasting between six and eighteen hours over multiple days; most significantly, the classes are taught in front of a live audience. A month prior to each workshop, viewers are invited to submit a sixtysecond audition video explaining why they want to attend a particular class. Because the interactive live audience is creativeLIVE’s most distinguishing characteristic, those who seem “hungry for the topic, passionate, articulate and expressive” are more likely to be chosen, Swanson says. As of this writing, creativeLIVE has over one million users, including viewers in Nigeria, Dubai, London, and Australia who’ve been known to fly themselves out to sit in on a class.
creativeLIVE has not only come to represent an innovative educational platform, but also an exceptional standard in quality teaching. Instructors are carefully selected based on proven talent, preliminary test screenings and reviews, as well as through viewer demand voiced across Twitter, Facebook, and other forums. All classes are recorded and made available for purchase; while this may cause criticism, the revenue share system effectively keeps the caliber of instructors consistently high. According to Swanson, the biggest challenge for many creatives is “knowing how to build their business and make money,” a challenge creativeLIVE also faced and one that George Varanakis started to answer. Leaving Rangefinder magazine and WWPPI, Varanakis joined the team six months ago as Marketing Director and is responsible for forging new revenue streams. James Slavet, a partner at Greylock, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, was brought in as a board member and gave creativeLIVE a $7.5 million cash infusion to further its reach. The same week that their funding was announced,
"creativeLIVE has not only come to represent an innovative educational platform, but also an exceptional standard in quality teaching." creativeLIVE also named Mika Salmi, the former president of Viacom Digital, as its new CEO. Together, Salmi, Swanson, Varanakis, and Jarvis seem to represent the four essential pillars of creativeLIVE—media broadcast, online education, business marketing, and photography, respectively. creativeLIVE is decidedly “not a reality show about photographers,” but rather a resource of “action-oriented tools,” so that visitors to the site won’t not only see what Vincent Laforet does so well, but how he does it so well. It’s a “win-win-win” situation: viewers receive free education from creative authorities such as Sue Brice, Zach Arias, and Jasmine Starr, who in turn get a global audience and media exposure unlike anything else; while for Swanson and Jarvis, who are self-described “servants,” creativeLIVE facilitates creativity, open exchange and entrepreneurial innovation. As of now, Swanson has no plans for institutionalizing creativeLIVE, keeping its educational programming casual, viewer-demand driven, and as accessible as it’s always been. After all, Swanson exclaims, “It exists for the world.”
BIZ: GET SMART-“creativeLIVE” Page 41
CLIENT FILE
Megan Re, Food Network Cooking up a storm in the world of food media.
I received my BFA in Photography from the Parsons School of Design in New York City, and I began working over a decade ago as a Photo Editor and photographer. I’m presently the Photo Manager/Producer for the Food Network and Cooking Channel Te l e v i s i o n N e t w o r k w h e re I ’ m responsible for oversight of the brand photography. I also continue to work on personal photo projects of my own.
Photo Manager / Producer at The Food Network & Cooking Channel.
CLAIM TO FAME • Developing a strong photo team and photo presence from the ground up for the Food Network and Cooking Channel. • Continually sourcing and introducing new photographers to the mix. • Produced the October 2006 cover of Gourmet with Chef Homaro Cantu, photographed by Hans Gissinger. • G o u r m e t re ce i v e d t h e A S M E A w a rd for Photography in 2005 and 2008, and Communication Arts’ Award of Excellence in 2008, when I worked there as Photo Editor.
www.foodnetwork.com www.cookingchanneltv.com www.scrippsnetworks.com
Prior to the Food Network, I spent years in publishing, working as a Photo Editor for various well know and award-winning print publications, such as Gourmet, Self and Elle. During this time, I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with some of the top creative directors, photographers, stylists, and editors from around the world.
TITLE
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
LOOKING FOR IN A PHOTOGRAPHER • Strong Work: Someone who has a great eye and provides quality. • Personality (both on a personal and professional level): I need to be confident the photographer will get along with my team, the talent, and can have fun. • Collaborative: It is important that our p h o to g ra p h e rs ca n co l l a b o ra te w i t h our creative team. • Problem-Solver: Someone who can remain clam during stressful times and be prepared with a plan B. • Style and Subject Matter: I like to know if someone has a specific subject focus, or if they have a range and breath • Experience and Skill Level: I like to assign jobs that are appropriate to the photographer’s level of experience.
YEARS IN THE BUSINESS Over ten years in this crazy industry!
BIZ: CLIENT FILE-“Megan Re" Page 43
CLIENT FILE
I’VE BEEN FORTUNATE TO COLLABORATE WITH SOME OF THE TOP CREATIVE DIRECTORS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, STYLISTS, AND EDITORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
FINDS PHOTOGRAPHERS IN Photographers websites via email blasts/ promotions, agency websites, recommendations from other producers and editors, magazines / websites / blogs.
DEAL-BREAKER WHEN HIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS Bad personality, lack of experience, lack of budget management and awareness.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
OK, a duvy, roll minus green, 2 big bens, pony clamps, butt plug, cardellinis, meat axe, quarter apples, cutter + 48” floppy, pigeon plate, black gaff, magic stand, dual eizos, four by four p95, sock for the beauty dish...
right, couple cookies, sixteen millimeter ex. ring for the hassy, dot & fingers, pocket wizards, octa on the mega boom, RFX, full roll CTO, Foba with the low arm, flooter with the barn doors, lunch box with 3 bates plugs, 4 P50’s ...
need the 85 1.2 for the mark 3, ND for the divas,
v flats and high boys for the background trees, showcard to kill the spill, extra lamps for the joker, drop pins for the high boys, quarter stop silk for the kinos, 6 wind-ups, 2 pumpkin weights.
:)
628 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
(212) 533-4195
www.neostudiosnyc.com BIZ: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 45
// TREND
SHOOT STILL + VIDEO Words and Photos by Dr. Elliot McGucken
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
ust as the world’s greatest surfer, Kelly Slater, reinvented himself by mastering aerials, today’s visual artists must remain competitive by keeping themselves atop the latest technological waves. And today’s dawn patrol is reporting that the waves are ideal for gnarly acrobatics once thought impossible: shooting high-quality stills and video simultaneously.
Two - p a g e R e d E P I C a d ve r t i s e m e n t s i n photography publications and major glossies recently read, “Shoot a feature and the poster for it at the same time,” while stills pulled from 4K and 5K Red video footage regularly grace the covers of high-end magazines. Award-winning New York Times photographer Doug Mills mounted one DSLR atop another, calling his novel apparatus the “Double-Shot.” USA Today sports photographer Robert Hanashiro mounts an HD GoPro camera on a lens hood to capture video while shooting stills, writing on his site, “Obviously the best way to shoot a video gig is dedicating yourself to shooting just video. But in the ‘real world’ of newspaper photographers we’re having to multitask more and more.” NikonUSA.com presents various strategies for capturing HD-sized stills on a page appropriately titled, “What to do When you Need Stills while Shooting HD Video.” Press the shutter button while shooting video on a typical DSLR, and some will halt the video to record a full-resolution still (albeit at less-thanoptimum rates), while others will record both video and a smallish 2mp, HD-sized still at the same time. You’ve likely seen, thought about, or even tried other strategies for capturing simultaneous stills and video. For the past three years I have been “45surfing”—shooting simultaneous full-size RAW stills and 1080 HD video with either a video camera bracketed to a Nikon D4 and 600mm F4 Prime lens in a tripodmounted configuration for pro surfing events, or a handheld rig consisting of a camcorder bracketed to a Nikon D800E and 70-200mm VR2 lens when shooting swimsuit models. Here’s a rundown of the philosophy and various approaches.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Dr. Elliot McGucken: www.elliotmcgucken.com / www.45surf.com
URFING MOORE’S LAW: WASTE THE ABUNDANT AND CONSERVE THE PRECIOUS AND RARE. The fundamental philosophy driving the simultaneous capture of stills and video is d r i ve n b y M o o re ' s Law—the same principle governing the exponential advancement of the Internet and digital media technologies which has brought us inexpensive cameras alongside free and immediate global distribution. As the power of cameras and computers augments while their prices decline, so too does the power of storage media—hard drives and memory cards— plummet as their power increases. Feature films and TV shows are shot on $2,000 cameras, while footage from the $200 GoPro HD Hero is used in major movies and Madison Avenue advertisements alike. Run the numbers, and with time as scarce as ever and the importance of video in a world where YouTube is the second-largest search engine, it makes sense to set up one or several HD cameras for a shoot, mounting one on the stills-dedicated DSLR for the unique “first-person-shooter” perspective. “Shoot it all first,” as it costs the same, and “edit it down later” suggest a new philosophy for visual artists. And as weddings, sunset swimsuit shoots, and sporting events happen but once, you cannot return to shoot the video. You can’t ask the bride to walk down the aisle again, or Kelly Slater to re-land an aerial off a wave that is now gone forever. All of this calls us to adventure—to develop a strategy for capturing stills and video at the same time. STILLS AND VIDEO REQUIRE DIFFERENT APPROACHES, SHUTTER SPEEDS, ETC. A salient fact that one must honor while capturing simultaneous stills and video is that the two mediums generally require different shutter speeds for optimum quality. This is especially important when motion is present—either at the camera’s end, such as with a handheld rig, or when the subject is moving. When I was shooting Kelly Slater’s journey to victory at the Hurley Pro, exposure times for the Nikon D4 stills were generally between 1/2000s to 1/5000s, thereby freezing his action in mid-air, while the exposure for the video was around 1/60s to 1/120s—well over an order difference in magnitude! A touch of motion blur in video frames is more pleasing to the eye, while sharpness is generally sought in photographic stills. For this reason, the Red cameras are limited, even with their 4K and 5K
image sizes. If you optimize the shutter speed for sharpness with speeds of 1/2000s or just 1/1000s, the video will appear “stuttery,” like those old black and white WWII film clips. Should you optimize the shutter speed for video at around 1/60s to 1/120s, motion blur will creep into the stills, showing up in handheld shots or when the subject is moving. When photographer Kevin Arnold used a $65,000 Red EPIC rig (now around $40,000) to shoot skiers at Whistler Mountain, he concluded, “The EPIC’s sensor, while amazing for video, just isn’t on par with top-end DSLRs and certainly not even close to medium format digital cameras when it comes to still images. The bigger challenge— especially when shooting fast moving lifestyle or sports action—is achieving fast shutter speeds. The great majority of the frames we shot were soft due to either camera movement or subject motion blur. This is the single biggest issue with pulling stills from video.” RED EPIC VS. HASSELBLAD WITH HEADSHOT MASTER PETER HURLEY. In the Fstoppers’ piece “Will Video Cameras Kill Still Photography? Red EPIC vs. Hasselblad,” Peter Hurley took headshots with both a Red and an older Hasselblad. It was generally agreed that while the Epic was impressive, the Hasselblad produced better results. But when one factors in the costs of the ~ $40,000 Red system vs. the ~ $10,000 Hasselblad, pulling stills from even the b e st 5 K v i d e o leaves much t o b e d e s i re d for portraitists. Pe t e r u t i l i z e d continuous lighting for his test, and while a Red can be used with strobes, there are far more tried-and-true flash options for standard DSLR and medium format cameras. However, needless to say, if one also wants 5K video of the shoot, the Red wins!
YOU CAN’T ASK THE BRIDE TO WALK DOWN THE AISLE AGAIN, OR KELLY SLATER TO RE-LAND AN AERIAL OFF A WAVE THAT IS NOW GONE FOREVER. ALL OF THIS CALLS US TO ADVENTURE—TO DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR CAPTURING STILLS AND VIDEO AT THE SAME TIME.
THE NEW YORK TIMES’ DOUG MILLS’ “DOUBLE-SHOT.” While Doug’s method of mounting one DSLR in the hot shoe of another generated some buzz in the summer of 2011, it seems that he has not been employing the method as of late. Drawbacks include the occupied flash shoe, the lack of video stabilization, and the fact that two DSLRS can feel quite heavy after a short while. As he was using Canons, both cameras would had to have been manually focused when following a subject, which could lead to missed shots, while being awkward and unwieldy at best. My lighter-than-a-DSLR, high-quality Panasonic or Canon camcorders I attach underneath my DSLR come with amazing
TECH: TREND-“Shoot, Still + Video” Page 49
// TREND video stabilization—a feature also lacking on Doug’s setup. The Sony A65 and A77 DSLRs, which I also use, come with both image-stabilization and autotracking focus which follows and focuses on moving objects, separating them from the background. I have experimented with mounting a video-dedicated Sony A77 underneath a Nikon D800E, and while it’s heavier than the camcorders and the image stabilization isn’t quite as good, it is capable of a shallower depth-offield, for that coveted cinematic look and feel. CAPTURING VIDEO WITH THE HD GOPRO WHILE SHOOTING STILLS.
USA Today sports photographer Robert Hanashiro writes on sportsshooter.com, his blog, “I have a GoPro mount stuck onto the end of a lens hood for my Nikkor 24-70mm, and if you’re a ‘one-man band’ like I am, shooting assignments for stills and video, this can sometimes be a nice solution.” On YouTube, you can find photographers wearing the GoPRo during shoots, but with its fixed wide-angle lens, the lens of the stills camera is often present in the shot. Additionally,
subjects appear a bit further away than you might like and suffer some wide-angle distortion when they are close. The camcorders I use offer simple zoom controls, suited to shooting pro surfers a hundred yards offshore with a 23x stabilized zoom, or a model fifteen feet in front of me. TOMORROW’S CAMERAS WILL ALL RECORD STILLS AND VIDEO SIMULTANEOUSLY. The iPhone 5 can take full-resolution (8mp) jpgs while shooting video, as can some compact cameras such as the Nikon 1 V2 (14mp). However, the capture rate of stills is relatively slow, and RAW stills yet elude the photographer in video mode on such devices. Both the small-sensor iPhone and comparable Android smartphones lack zooms and that coveted shallowdepth-of-field film look. DSLRs such as the Canon 7D can acquire full-sized RAW photos while shooting video, but the video is interrupted. And on other DSLRs, when they do not interrupt the video, the photos are limited to the HD frame’s 2mp size, falling far short of their 22-36mp
full-frame capabilities. Needless to say, we do not pay top-dollar to purchase 36mp DSLRs to end up with puny 2mp jpg stills captured in video mode. Soon the processing power to shoot both full-sized RAW stills and RAW video will arrive across the board, as it exists today in the Red systems. In a couple years, 4K video, which is about 4 times the size of HD video (more than enough for feature films at your local multiplex), will replace HD as the standard, and even our smartphones will be shooting 4K video. But as aforementioned, while stills pulled from a 4K video will be large enough for print magazines and billboards, their exposure times will not always be optimum, especially in hand-held scenarios or when shooting motion. If you increase the shutter speed for sharper images, the video will suffer. Thus two cameras—one dedicated to stills and one to video—will continue to have advantages, as optimum stills and video generally require different exposure times. This set-up also allows you to capture different fields of view in stills and video, with different depths of fields, and, as we have seen, different shutter speeds; all of which suggests the use of a dual-camera system.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
// DO IT FOR FUN
BELAIR X 6-12 By Halley Parry The classic bellows design has finally freed itself from the cluttered shelves of your local thrift store and made its way to a stylish series of mediumformat, 120 film Lomography cameras with the Belair X 6-12. Whether you are a jetsetter, a globetrotter, or a city slicker, there’s a design for you. The camera boasts amazing lens quality, zonefocusing, and panoramic capabilities, all packaged in a sexy compact camera body. Coupled with the charms of Lomography, this camera is the first of its kind—and looks good while doing it.
$249.00 http://microsites.lomography.com/belair/ OR www.lomography.com
THE BIGGER CHALLENGE— ESPECIALLY WHEN SHOOTING FAST MOVING LIFESTYLE OR SPORTS ACTION—IS ACHIEVING F AST S H U T T E R S P E E D S . THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THE FRAMES WE SHOT WERE SOFT DUE TO EITHER CAMERA MOVEMENT OR SUBJECT MOTION BLUR. THIS IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST ISSUE WITH PULLING STILLS FROM VIDEO.
TECH: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 51
OME ADVANTAGES OF THE 45SURFER SYSTEM. I constructed a table comparing the 45Surfer to the Red EPIC, Hanashiro’s HD GoPro, general DSLRS, iPhones/Droids/smartphones, and other approaches. By no means is this list complete, nor is it the final word, and we would love to hear about your innovative takes on capturing stills and video at the same time, and the reasons for your preferred methods and means. RED EPIC RED SCARLET
NYT’S DOUG MILLS DUAL-DSLR “DOUBLE SHOT”
USA TODAY ROBERT HANASHIRO’S HD HERO GOPRO
DSLR SHOOTING STILLS DURING VIDEO
IPHONE/ ANDROIDS OR NIKON V1 / COMPACTS
4K/5K video
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes with a 4K camcorder
HD Video
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
36 MP RAW Stills
No
Possible with Nikon D800
Possible with Nikon D800
No—in video mode stills are 2 mp jpgs.
No
Yes
22 MP RAW Stills
No
Possible with Canon/Nikon/ Sony
Possible Canon/ Nikon/ Sony
No—in video mode stills are 2 mp jpgs.
No
Yes
Can shoot stills and video with different shutter speeds
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes with some Sony cameras
Some
Yes
No
Not with iPhones/Androids
Yes
In-Camera Video Stabilisation
No
No
45SURF 9SHOOTER METHOD
Variable Zoom for Video
Yes
Yes (unwieldy)
No
Operational Weight*
~7-10 lbs. (search reduser.net for more info)
~6.6 lbs. with two Canon 5D’s and 24-105 L lenses
~5.1 lbs. with Nikon D3, 24-70 mm lens and HD Hero GoPro
~3.3 lbs. for a Canon 5D and 24-105 L Lens
.3-.9 lb.
~7 lbs with Nikon D800E with a 70200 mm VR2 and a Panasonic X900MK
Continuous Video While Shooting Still
Yes
Yes
Yes
Depends on DSLR
Yes
Yes
Can adjust relative angles between stills and video cameras
NA
Yes
No
NA
NA
Yes
Can shoot stills and video with different fields of view and depths of field
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Can shoot stills with speedlights when shooting video
Not easy but solutions may exist.
Not easy as flash shoe is occupied.
Gopro mounted at end of lens will block-flash.
Yes
Not with iPhones/Androids
Yes
Overall Operational Cost**
~$45,000 (Epic)~$15,000 (Scarlet)
~$4,000 - $10,000
~$2,000-$4,000
~$1,000-$3,000
~$400-$1,000
~$3,000-$5,000
// SICK APP
V SY C OL OCNAEM By Halley Parry Alexandra Miller
Platforms:
iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, iPad and iPad mini and iPod Touch VSCO Cam requires iOS 5 or iOS 6.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Summary: Nearly as simple Who as theneeds actual it: camera Anyone Summary: Vyclone is a brand-new social media
on your iPhone, the VSCO Caminterested is minimalinand lets you a social video app that allows users to make collaborative films. gorgeous images be shared onis any major media app that actually It combines your video with the create videos of other users whothat can social media The sleek design streamlined social. and Vyclone enhances are geographically nearby. Imagine you’re at aoutlet. concert, workflow willat have glued togroup your phone, whether experiences one of thousands in the sea of phones aimed the you stage: you arevideo giving your photos a nostalgic, retro look, by combining your or after recording, you can combine your with videos adjusting contrast. This perspective app has a camera feature with other from other Vyclone users, takensimply from other angles and similar to Instagram, features, people’sQuality viewpoint. perspectives. The app instantly synchronizes and editsten Professional precision editing, everyone’s clips, but, if you’re feeling creative, youand can an effortless interface. Soon you will even able to upload images to your own personal get the raw footage to remix your own cut,beuse different VSCO filters, and even add an audio track. Andwebsite. most importantly, the app is free!
Sooner than later, a manufacturer will release a small, light, mirror-less compact camera system, such as the Sony NEX7, with high-quality image-stabilization, tracking auto-focus, and the coveted shallow depth-of-field. Bracket two of these cameras together—one for stills and one for video—and the rig will weigh less than a single typical DSLR and lens. I am currently working on an app, which will be capable of matching the two cameras’ settings, such fields of view, zoom, and other selected attributes, so that when you zoom in with the stills-dedicated camera with a shutter optimized for stills, the video-dedicated camera follows suit, zooming with its shutter optimized for video, while correcting for parallax. Just as once-impossible aerials are now part of the world’s leading surfers’ standard repertoires, what was once inconceivable— shooting quality stills and video at the same time—is becoming a standard part of the modern visual artists’ repertoire. And remember that in the arts, as in business and life, the classic surfing maxim holds true: “The surfer having the most fun wins!”
Loves: You edit and save The can user-friendly a photo without controls and the uploading ability to it to any site, back customize thecome videos. It’s so and later, or like easyupload to use, itfilm novices simply save it for own your mom can takeyour advantage personal This of Vyclone.enjoyment. You can also share is an movies application thatfrom works your directly the as as the images appbeautifully to Twitter and Facebook. it produces.
Who Hates:needs Since it: it’sLiterally new, Vyclone anyone who enjoys processing is still gathering users, which photos on network their mobile devices. makes its a little small. But the amazing response to the app shows Hates: Thethat lack of knowing it is going to be a hit.some trial what’s what. It took and error to figure out what exactly each button controls.
Final Rating: Final Rating:
TECH: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 53
// WHAT'S IN YOUR CLOSET
SARAH SILVER
HOW DO YOU SELECT THE GEAR THAT YOU HAVE? I ask my killer team for their recommendations.
3 PIECES OF EQ YOU COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT: Wacom Tablet / Pocket Wizard / Picturemate Printer
Words and Main Photo by Sarah Silver
1 PIECE OF EQ THAT SETS YOU APART FROM OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS: Broncolor Flooter 3 PIECES OF LIGHTING EQ IN YOUR CLOSET THAT YOU USE ALMOST ON EVERY SHOOT: 2 x Broncolor Grafit A4 Broncolor Pulso Twin Head
BRONCOLOR
YOUR POINT AND SHOOT OF CHOICE IS: Sony RX100
THE SMALLEST ITEM IN YOUR CLOSET IS: Sub Mini Photo To Mini Phono Adapter THE MOST EXPENSIVE ITEM IN YOUR CLOSET IS: Phase IQ140 Digital Back THE OLDEST ITEM IN YOUR CLOSET THAT STILL WORKS IS: Broncolor Flashman Pack
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
5 THINGS THAT YOU LOVE, THAT ARE NOT IN YOUR EQ CLOSET: 1. WWII Spy Novels 2. My road bike 3. My husband’s cooking (and my husband) 4. Traveling in North Africa 5. My awesome team (I don’t keep them in the closet!)
3 ITEMS YOU WISH WERE IN YOUR CLOSET: Broncolor diffusion for Para 220 FB Hasselblad 35mm More Pocket Wizards!!
Sarah Silver: www.sarahsilver.com
YOUR USELESS GADGET OF CHOICE IS: Goody mirror with 5 years worth of hair spray on it.
Capture. Edit. Organize. Share. Streamline Your Workflow with a First-Class Setup + CAPTURE ONE PRO 7 +
Resource is teaming up with Phase One and DF Studio for a monthly contest that gives readers the chance to experience some of the most cutting-edge gear on the market. Upload your shots to Resource Online to be entered to win a shot at all of the following: • A complete Phase One Medium Format Camera System to use for a month to experience the professional favorite first-hand • A free copy of Capture One Pro 7, the ultimate RAW conversion software • 1-year of DF Studio, the latest in cloud-based management and storage • A handmade 24x36 digital print of your best image captured with the Phase One IQ system courtesy of Gotham Imaging NYC It gets better: The work you create with the Phase One Camera System will be featured on Resourcemagonline.com, a gallery show featuring all 12 winners and be considered for a Phase One or DF Studio ad campaign. We’ll choose one winner per month for a year — that’s 12 chances to win! For more information and to upload submissions, check out the contest page at:
resourcemagonline.com/p1-df-contest To get started enter our contest link in your browser or scan the QR code. You’ll be invited to join our VIP contest list and shortly after receive a link to submit your photos. Submit up to 5 photos per week. Each month the editors of Resource Magazine will chose a winner to receive this incredible prize package and feature your work on our website for everyone to see. For a full list of contest rules and submission guidelines please visit: resourcemagonline.com/p1-df-contest-rules
resourcemagonline.com
phaseone.com
dfstudio.com
TECH: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 55 gothamimaging.com
// DECONSTRUCTED
GAFFER'S TAPE
Providing shoes with traction. Apply to the bottom of the sole. Insulation tape on bare wires. Dangerous. But it works.
By Matthew Fennell Photo by Greg Neumaier
HERE’S HOW IT WENT. HORACE DAY , A S U R G E O N A R O U N D T H E TIME WHEN LINCOLN WAS STILL A S E N AT O R A N D H A D N ’ T Y E T K I L L E D A S I N G L E VA M P I R E O R B E E N T H R U S T I N TO A S T E V E N SPIELBERG MOVIE, IS STUCK. HE’S BASICALLY SOBBING HIMSELF TO SLEEP OVER TRYING TO FIGURE OUT JUST HOW TO HOLD DOWN HIS BANDAGES. On the morning he’s prepared to give up and pronounce himself a failure to family and country, he stumbles out of bed, knocks into his dining room table, and careens a container of glue left there by his paste-eating children onto his bright white nightgown. Upon struggling to remove the cloth stuck to his unusually furry leg hair, a light bulb ignites above his head, and he shouts out “Gaffer’s tape!” He immediately begins stripping off cloth and setting spike marks on the floorboards. That’s not how it went. However, the history of tape runs fairly along the lines of “someone stuck something to something else.” That being said, is there anything more trustworthy than that matte black donut inside your case? Besides the camera itself, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more important tool on set. This adhesive strip was invented (for real this time) in 1959 by Ross Lowell, of the infamous Lowell Lights, as a tape you could strap to any surface without leaving residue or ripping the paint from the walls. While it might just be cotton strips and adhesive, Gaffer’s tape has been every image maker’s savior at one time or another. Praise be to its name.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
WHERE CAN YOU FIND THIS MAGICAL SUBSTANCE? You can snag some gaff almost anywhere photo, video, or camera equipment is sold, but hell, even Staples has the stuff. It’ll run you about 4 to 8 bucks for a 12-yard roll. B&H is a good bet when buying online. If you’re looking to go straight to source, that magical fountain of tape, make the drive or take a flight to Windham, New Hampshire, where the International Tape Company is located. We’re pretty sure this is where all the tape in the world is produced (but don’t take our word for it). When not being used on set, here’s a bunch of other reasons why Gaffer’s tape is the best thing since sliced duct tape
INGREDIENTS: Not much to ole Gaff. Cotton fabric mesh, usually in a black matte finish, serves as your non-sticking web. The cotton web is then coated with polyethylene. This synthetic material protects the mesh from moisture and abrasion. The coating is flexible and allows the tape to stick better to irregular surfaces. Polyethylene is melted and applied to the fabric in a coating process. The adhesive used in Gaffer’s tape is surprisingly unique. It is a synthesized adhesive, combined with strong rubber bonds, applied in much thicker coatings than regular tape. That’s how this tape stays stuck all shoot long.
Holds the universe together.
Keeping people away. Black gaff your windows, turn the lights on, and they’ll never know you are home.
Can be used as an emergency seat belt. Simply wrap the tape around your car seat.
Waterproofing the trunk of your car (in case you plan on driving through water anytime soon).
Removes animal hair from your clothes. No more lint roll.
Stopping men from using broken urinals.
Setting the spark plug gap in your car.
Waxing your legs. Men and women.
Extending your reach. Wrap gaff, sticky side up, around the end of a broom, and pick up all those tiny nuts and bolts dropped into hard-to-reach places.
THINGS GAFFER’S TAPE CAN’T FIX:
Curing warts. Cuts off their supply to oxygen. Watch them wither away.
Even a Gaff lover such as myself can admit that the tape may have some shortcomings. Here’s a list of things you shouldn’t go after with Gaffer’s tape:
STREET CRACKS
BRIDGES
AN AIRPLANE
LADDERS
HEARTBREAK
TECH: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 57
// MOBILE PHOTO // EXPOSE FOR YOUR HIGHLIGHTS.
// LIMIT YOUR SHOOT-TO-SHARE RATIO.
Mobile photography isn't really that different than DSLR photography—expose for your highlights and let the shadows fall where they may.
I shoot way more images than I share. The way I look at it, that's a good thing. Shoot everything that inspires you, but share only your best work!
// USE DUAL RETICLE APPS. I only use apps that allow me to independently control both exposure and focus since the points for each are often quite different. // ZOOM WITH YOUR FEET AND NOT YOUR FINGERS.
// MAKE YOUR MOBILE PHOTOGRAPHY INTENTIONAL, NOT CASUAL.
// MY NAME IS JACK HOLLINGSWORTH. I'M A 30-YEAR VETERAN COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER SPECIALIZING IN TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY. Two years ago, while on a DSLR assignment in the Caribbean for a luxury resort, I shot my very first iPhone photograph. This was an epiphany—a conversion that quickly became an obsession. It led me to believe that in the hands of any visionary photographer, the iPhone can be a powerful camera. When all is said and done, I suspect that the iPhone will go down in history as the most influential capture device ever manufactured in the history of photography. Apple gave the iPhoneography movement its true birthright. Flickr gave the movement its roots and foundation. And Instagram has now given iPhoneography its wings by creating a global audience for mobile photography. This is an extremely exciting time for photographers to be creating imagery. The iPhoneography zeitgeist isn't hurting or ruining traditional photography; it's breathing new life into it and forever changing the conversation about photography and where that conversation takes place—in the palm of your hands. Based on my own mobile photography experience, here are a few tips to help you raise your game.
There is no substitute for learning photography other than to shoot, shoot, and shoot.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
I don't normally edit as I move through any given shooting experience as shooting and editing uses different parts of the brain. Throughout the day I "spot check" what I'm shooting, but I generally edit later in the day, when things are quiet and I'm more relaxed. // TURN TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS INTO OPPORTUNITIES.
A full frame DSLR sensor is 70 times larger than an iPhone sensor, so you don't have the dynamic range in mobile that you have with your DSLR. Don't use the digital zoom—it sucks and you'll be disappointed with the results. If you want to get close, move into the subject!
// Words and Photos by Jack Hollingsworth
// SHOOT NOW. EDIT LATER.
Most mobile shooters document experiences as they move through the flow and rhythm of life. That's not at all a bad philosophy, but you can do so much more if you make your mobile experience intentional. Try taking a short fifteen-minute photo-walk a day. You'll be surprised—it could change your photographic sensibility.
Yes, the iPhone (and all mobile phones) is technically limiting in terms of controlling exposure and aperture, sensor size, or dynamic range. You have no control over ISO or shutter speed. But the truth is, these are the very factors that make the capture experience so fun, unpredictable, and exciting. I felt exactly the same when I shot Polaroids, Lomos, Holgas, Dianas, etc. // MAKE ARTFUL MOMENTS. There seems to be two groups in the mobile space: those who capture memories of friends, family, or experiences; and a second group made of mostly discriminating photographers who sets out to create "art." While I applaud and celebrate both groups, I see a third group emerging—those who create "artful moments" (the best of both worlds!).
// LET APPS REFINE BUT NOT DEFINE YOUR STYLE.
// SHOOT LIKE A CRAZY MAN.
It should come as no surprise that after 30 years of DSLR shooting, I came to the mobile experience with a defined style and mission. So, I look for camera apps (almost 20,000 of them are on iTunes) that further refine my style. The best apps are the ones that help you define your body-of-work.
There is no substitute for learning photography other than to shoot, shoot, and shoot. As you begin to understand and appreciate your mobile camera for what it is, I think you'll find new passion and excitement—just like I have found. When it comes to mobile photography, you're either a "groupie" or "grumpie." Trust me when I say that there are a lot more "groupies" in this world.
I NEVER THOUGHT FOR A SINGLE MINUTE THAT I WOULD BE IN LOVE WITH A PIECE OF HARDWARE AS I AM IN LOVE WITH MY IPHONE. IT'S A GAME CHANGING DEVICE THAT, WHEN USED PROPERLY, CAN YIELD ASTONISHING AND COMPELLING RESULTS. I HAVE NOT ABANDONED MY DSLR WORK AND I HAVE NO INTENTION OF DOING SO IN THE NEAR FUTURE, BUT WHAT I CAN TELL YOU IS THAT, WHETHER I'M SHOOTING COMMERCIAL OR PERSONAL WORK, MY IPHONE IS ALWAYS CLOSE BY. I am about to launch my own camera app called "Passport" which I hope will be on iTunes soon. The game is about to change again. instagram.com/jackhollingsworth
vimeo.com/53452178
twitter.com/photojack
Speaking at Macworld: http://prn.to/RCqarw
There are over
7people billion on the
planet today.
58 %
Over of them own a smartphone. And
90 %
of these smartphone
owners shoot pictures with
their mobile camera.
Join the conversation. Join the
revolution!
TECH: MOBILE PHOTO-“Shooting like a Pro with your iPhone” Page 61
Like all Mola beauty dishes, the Mantti has their signature and patented undulating design. This feature, along with the speciallyformulated interior reflective coating, produces exceptional clarity, a highly efficient light output, and the distinctive quality of light Mola users rave about.
// GEAR TEST
MOLA SOFTLIGHT www.mola-light.com www.versa-flex.com
Review by Michael Corsentino
There’s something to be said for specializing—doing only one thing and doing it exceptionally well! In the case of Ontario-based Mola Softlights, their one thing is a line of beauty dishes. Designed by a photographer for photographers, Mola enjoys a rabid fan base among working pros, myself included. The Mola family consists of six models ranging in sizes from the 22” Demi, 28” Setti and Sollo, 33.5” Euro and Beamm, to the largest, the 43.5” Mantti. Each of Mola’s beauty dishes is designed to produce a separate quality of light, and each is universal, requiring a speed ring from your specific lighting system. Although I have many softboxes, some of which I love, after working with Mola’s beauty dishes, I find myself reaching for them less and less. For me, the snappier quality of light I get from Mola is just what the doctor ordered. I’ve been working with the Demi and Setti for a while now and recently got my hands on the Mantti.
At 43.5’” in diameter and 9.5” in depth, the Mantti Mantti is 25% shallower and has 30% more surface area than the Euro, the next-largest model in the Mola arsenal. The Mantti creates a broad, even light source with diffused shadows, very similar to window light. For a dish this size it’s incredibly versatile and well suited for commercial, editorial, and fashion applications alike. Its broad coverage makes it the perfect candidate for full lenghth work. A Google search for Mantti images or a visit to the Mola blog is sure to inspire you—there are lots of examples of the many creative ways this modifier can be used.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
I’ve seen both soft and punchy results from this dish, owing to the variety of ways it can be further modified. A perforated Pad Diffusor and diffusion sock are included, as well as an optional Opal Diffusion Glass disc and a custommade honeycomb grid from honeygrids. com, all resulting in endless possibilities. One look I’m particularly fond of requires stacking the Pad onto the Opal diffusers—give it a try!
While the Mantti can be cumbersome to travel with its 43.5” diameter, it’s well worth the effort as it works beautifully on location. You can protect your Mantti investment during transportation with a custom built case from Ohio-based Versa-Flex. Mola beauty dishes are available for sale, as well as in most major market rental houses— making it easy to try one before you buy, or get hold of your favorite when you’re on a trip.
Michael Corsentino: www.corsentinophotography.com
With a dish this size, or even when working with the smaller Demi and Setti models, the right grip makes all the difference. Models larger than the Demi all include a really useful Unified Swivel Handle, which evenly distributes the weight of the reflector, balancing and stabilizing it solidly over a light stand or on a boom arm. To make t h i n g s e v e n m o re maneuverable, I use a Kupo EZ Grip Finger to hang the dish from a Kupo High Overhead Roller Stand with a S te e l B a b y B o o m . Works like a charm!
// www.elinchrom.com
// Retail price: $499
ELINCHROM RANGER QUADRA LITHIUM-ION BATTERY Review by Michael Corsentino Elinchrom Ranger Quadra users have another reason to s m i le . E l i n c h ro m h a s announced the availability of a new and much improved lithium-ion battery for their best-in-class 400WS pack and head system. Long favored by users for its light weight, small size and superior portability, the new lithium-ion battery continues to lighten the load for Ranger Quadra users, weighing in at just 1.61 pounds; it’s also 12% (about 1 inch) shorter than its lead acid cousin. Using this new battery reduces the overall pack and battery weight from 6.6 pounds to just 4.4 pounds. That’s an impressive 33% lighter! It gets even better with across-the-board performance improvements, like three times as many full power shots per charge (up to 320), 15% faster recycle, and 25% faster recharging.
So the question is, with all these great new features, is there still a place for a lead acid battery in your bag? The answer is yes—and here’s w h y. W h i le t h e l i t h i u m ion technology is fantastic i n a l m o s t a l l re s p e c t s , p e r fo r m a n ce i n ex t re m e temperatures is better suited to lead the acid battery. It’s also worth noting for those used to working with lead acid battery, that the Quadra's top display can't reliably indicate a lithium-ion battery charge level—instead, the battery has a power level indicator located on its side.
// DO IT WITH STYLE
CLOAK CAMERA BAG By Halley Parry
The Cloak Camera Bag is the camera bag to end all camera bags—simply because you never have to take your camera out of it! This rugged, water-resistant, 6” by 9.5” bag is the world’s first shoot-through camera bag. Cloak Bag saves you precious time that would ordinarily be spent getting your camera out and ready for the perfect shot. It’s lightweight, with a zippered bottom for easy access and pockets that can hold up to five lenses. Just grab the bag, unzip it, and shoot. The bag’s elements of stealth, style, and protection from prying eyes mean never having to look like a tourist again.
$49.00 www.cloakbags.com
The lithium-ion battery and proprietary smart charger are available as a kit, and are being offered as an optional replacement for the lead acid battery currently shipping with all Ranger Quadra units.
TECH: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 63
// GEAR HEADS
LET THERE BE (LED) LIGHT! By Matthew Reamer Photos by Matthew Reamer and Mark Gordon of G10 Capture
early everyone involved in photo and video production has noticed the proliferation of LED light panels on shoots over the past few years, and while they’re a convenient source—lightweight, efficient and portable—they are not without downsides. They are not particularly powerful in proportion to their size, requiring a somewhat close proximity to your subject. And though they are easy to manage, the footprint of a LED panel capable of emitting
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
a usable output is still such that it requires its own case. Last, the hefty price tag attached to the higher end units can prohibit many would-be owners from having a few in their kit. Enter Fiilex, a subsidiary of the DiCon Corporation that is poised to shake up the continuous l i g h t i n g m a r ke t . B a s e d i n Richmond, CA, Fiilex is a fully vertically integrated company, meaning that everything they
do—from R&D all the way to production and marketing— takes place in-house. They are able to develop highly specified products with a great deal of control over every aspect of production. According to Fiilex Brand Manager Brent Siebenaler, “We are constantly pushing the technology further and further; we are not sitting and waiting for someone else to make something better, we make it ourselves. We can react fast to the market’s
Fiilex: www.fiilex.com
MAJOR ADVANCES IN THE FIELD OF LED TECHNOLOGY HAVE RIPPLED THROUGH ALL ASPECTS OF THE I N D U ST R I A L , CO N S U M E R , A N D PROFESSIONAL MARKETS OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS. AS THE SIZE AND PRICE OF LEDS CONTINUE TO SHRINK, THE ACCESSIBILITY, USABILITY, AND PRACTICALITY OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY IS SEEING A RAPID EXPANSION. NOWHERE IS THIS AS APPARENT AS IT IS IN THE PHOTO AND VIDEO MARKET, WHERE IMPROVEMENTS IN HIGH-ISO CAPTURE HAVE MADE LOW- TO MID-OUTPUT LIGHT SOURCES ADEQUATE FOR MANY TYPES OF SHOOTING.
WEIGHING IN AT A MERE 1.6 LBS. AND ROUGHLY THE SIZE OF A COFFEE MUG, THE P360 EMITS AN IMPRESSIVE 90 WATTS.
needs and fine-tune a product to very specific needs.” This includes all the components of their patented High-Density LED Array—a fully adjustable, highly controlled, efficiently cooled, and remarkably small LED cluster that is at the center of all their designs. On a recent visit to their headquarters, Mark and I were granted unprecedented access to see vertical integration in action. Thinking we were heading in just to conduct an interview and shoot a few photos, we were pleasantly surprised at the opportunity to don bunny suits and pass through an air blaster into
space-age looking labs where we were able to observe every step of chip and LED production—much of which going over my head—from the creation of semiconductor wafers (yes, they make their own) to the stress testing of assembled prototypes. Tubes and pipes everywhere; rooms lit in yellow hues to prevent bacteria growth; machines emitting purple UV light; flasks full of chemicals; products cooking in ovens; masked workers loading, unloading, assembling, testing… It was a bit overwhelming and made me realize how much about technology I take for granted.
It was eye-opening, to say the least—though even with open eyes, it was hard to see much with the way my head was spinning. Having gained preeminence (and lots of money) in fiber optics during the first dot com boom, DiCon diversified its activity, entering the LED technology field around 2002. They released their first product (a home lighting fixture) in 2007 and steadily grew their LED offerings to include various specialty lighting units for professional and consumer use, as well as a line of compact, high-efficiency grow lights. 2013 marks their debut in the
TECH: GEAR HEADS-“Let there be (LED) Light” Page 65
// GEAR HEADS "IT WAS EYE-OPENING, TO SAY THE LEAST—THOUGH EVEN WITH OPEN EYES, IT WAS HARD TO SEE MUCH WITH THE WAY MY HEAD WAS SPINNING."
photography and video market, with the launch of Fiilex. One of Fiilex’s initial offerings will be the P360. As the more practical product for a wide range of shooters, the P360 stands to make quite an impact, as it offers a marked improvement on current LED technology in three important areas—flexibility, portability, and affordability.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Weighing in at a mere 1.6 lbs. and roughly the size of a coffee mug, the P360 emits an impressive 90 watts from its patented 50 diode high-density LED array, which is amazingly smaller than a dime (I wonder what they could do with a quarter). The array is covered by a glass optic, emulating a single point light source which, unmodified, casts a remarkably clean shadow—and to top it off,
Fiilex has managed to incorporate variable color temperature settings from 3000K to 5600K. In practical terms, this means you can fit a P360 (or a few) in your travel bag and still pack output and adjustability that rivals a 1x1 panel light. Oh, and at $695 it’s going to be about $2,000 cheaper than the current
color tunable model. The unit ships with barn doors, giving it out-of-the-box versatility, and features a magnetic accessory mount that currently accepts Fiilex’s diffusion dome. The company plans to roll out additional modifiers, but in the meantime, the P360’s housing is just the right diameter to accept accessories d e s i g n e d fo r P ro fo to , s o users can immediately sta r t ex p e r i m e n t i n g w i t h a wide range of reflectors and diffusers. Not quite as versatile but no less interesting is Fiilex’s P200 Flexjet fiber illuminator, a high-powered LED that accepts a variety of fiber optic accessories, creating a light source that is literally flexible, allowing it to be bent
and positioned into hard-tolight spaces. While the color temperature is not variably adjustable like the P360, the P200 does switch between 3200K, 4500K, and 6500K, as well as magenta, yellow, aqua, cyan, and blue. Obviously, this isn’t the go-to light for most applications, but it could prove to be useful in specialty fields, particularly interior and tabletop work. Though they may be newcomers to the photo and video world, DiCon’s extensive background in LED technology has them entering the market with over a decade of research a n d d e v e lo p m e n t b e h i n d them, as well as the resources and facilities to produce and compete at a high level with their Fiilex line of lights. They
are definitely putting their good foot forward right out of the gate and it’s easy to imagine the improvements and advances that lie ahead in the coming years. According to Brian Chiang, VP of Marketing, “We develop technologies and find applications for them later.” The improvements in high ISO settings on digital cameras has opened a big window for the application of their HighDensity Arrays, and while they are a little late coming onto the scene, they may be a force to be reckoned with.
Ideal for stIll-lIfe, portraIts castIng. Indoor parkIng, freIght. $500 day Includes basIc grIp. addItIonal rental equIpment avaIlable 20x30 shootIng table seatIng for up to 10
DUMBO
20 Jay St #822 Brooklyn NY 11201 718-943-2500
www.dumbodaylight.com
DAYLIGHT
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
With the acerbic but ever-catchy lyrics of “My Name Is,” Detroit rapper Eminem introduced the world to his quick-tongued, put-the-fun-back-indysfunctional alter ego, Slim Shady. His over-the-top lyrics condoning violence, homophobia and misogyny caused controversy, but the rapper’s lyrical prowess and insight into urban and sliceof-trailer-park life did not go unnoticed. The Slim Shady LP went on to become triple platinum, earning him bona fide celebrity status. His follow up, The Marshall M a t h e r s LP, became the fastest selling Hip Hop and solo record in U.S. history, and solidified his superstar status. For his third consecutive Grammy-winning album, The Eminem Show , the singer took on a decidedly lighter, reflective tone, examining race, the government, terrorism, and the pressures of fame.
“I’M A FAN. I’M A HUGE FAN. I’M A FAN OF TALENT THAT’S NOT A GIMMICK AT ALL. I KNOW THAT HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING. I HAVE MASSIVE RESPECT FOR HIM.”
DATE:
ALBUM TITLE:
1996
INFINITE
1999
THE SLIM SHADY LP
2000
THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP
2002
THE EMINEM SHOW 8 MILE (SOUNDTRACK)
2004
ENCORE
2005
CURTAIN CALL: THE HITS
2006
RAW AND UNCUT
2009
EMINEM PRESENTS: THE RE-UP THE KING IS BACK RELAPSE
2010
RELAPSE: REFILL
The album cover needed to reflect this new introspective approach; having worked with Jonathan Mannion on The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem chose the Brooklyn-based photographer for his new album. Think of any great rapper of the last fifteen years—Jay-Z, Nas, DMX, The Game, Lil Wayne—and the likelihood is high that Mannion was involved in creating their iconic album covers. Collectively, their visual language established an iconography surrounding the most influential and best selling Hip Hop and rap artists to date. To find out more about the photographer’s involvement with The Eminem Show artwork, Resource reached out to Mannion, who spoke candidly about working with Eminem, about artistic merit, and about covering a genre. By Jonathan Mannion, 2002 | Words by Charlie Fish
IMAGE: HISTORY-“Eminem” Page 69
We shot The Eminem Show very close to the release date. Because of his success from The Marshall Mathers LP, I knew he was busier than ever. I think this was a last minute put-it-together and makeit-happen situation. THE MANNION-EMINEM COLLABO I’ve done a number of album covers with major talents over the years, from Jay-Z to DMX to Nelly. A lot of people trust me to just do my thing. Eminem is different in that he likes the creative process. We had great discussions during The Marshall Mathers LP about how we were gong to tell the story, and the concept came from him for The Eminem Show. He said, “I want it to be that I’m on a stage, but I’m not quite ready to come out.” He always had a thing about being small on the cover; he never wanted to have a big face picture for whatever reason. I guess here he liked to see the inside theme with a different perspective, and I think that this was a moment where he saw it clearly. It then became a dialogue between us where we ended with the idea of the curtains kind of just opening and him sitting—an extravaganza going on outside while he was having a moment to himself… sort of unaware that the curtains had opened. I guess you could read into it a lot of ways. It’s one of those beautiful moments where you can have a dialogue with somebody who is a true creative and a true genius and land on something that marks that moment in time. I think The Eminem Show did that very clearly.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
WE SHOT THE EMINEM SHOW VERY CLOSE TO THE RELEASE BECAUSE OF HIS SUCCESS FROM THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP. I KNOW HE WAS BUSIER THAN EVER. I THINK THIS WAS A LAST MINUTE PUTIT-TOGETHER AND MAKE-IT-HAPPEN SITUATION. ALL EYES ON EMINEM I ended up shooting him for probably two or three days around this concept. I shot him at his house; I shot him with Dr. Dre and shot him in the studio. But the bigger picture of the concept was about surveillance. He was bigger than ever, with The Marshall Mathers LP being so successful, selling 16 million units. He was on top of his game and we wanted to tell the story that everybody was watching him, all eyes were on him. But at the end of the story [there’s an image of him with] his feet up, reading The Wall Street Journal—he was the one controlling the show. That was sort of saying, “I know you’re all watching me and watching what I do at every moment, trying to pick me apart and rip me down or elevate me,” and he was aware of it all. SETTING THE STAGE This was shot in Detroit. We scouted a lot of places—other locations weren’t available for us on a Sunday, but this Masonic hall was. There wasn’t a deep consideration about the color [of the curtain]; it was more about the history of the place, that the texture of the wood floor was so weathered and aged. Shooting in Detroit was important for the concept and for Eminem to be comfortable and be on home soil. I think he walked into the building and was like, “Yeah, this is it. This is exactly where we need to be.”
This was not a digital moment, none of this was done in post. I had a set designer who came in from L.A.; we built that sign that said “The Eminem Show.” We did a little bit of retouching to take out the wires but this was a physical piece, it wasn’t lettering. We built that and hung it above the set. We wanted to explore the concept so there are a lot of different versions where the curtain wasn’t spread, it was halfway down and coming up as a theatre curtain would, rather than spreading left to right. We had him out on stage and on the microphone and behind… A lot of it was just presenting what was this new thing: him on the mic and pointing to this sign behind him like, “Yep, this is a show now, and I’m your host.” LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION I shot film with a Hasselblad, an 80 mm lens, as well as a Pentax 67. The lighting set-up was very clean; we just wanted some shape to the lights. We wanted the curtain to read so it was pretty straightforward. It wasn’t the craziest, most elaborate lighting set-up, just a handful of strobes and umbrellas. We didn’t reinvent the wheel—it was really about the moment and the emotion he gave, being unprepared to walk out in front of the crowd. I probably shot 300 shots, which would have been 30 rolls, with various moments to really get that finite moment of emotion. MAKING THE REAL SLIM SHADY To give the amount of time that he did… Granted, artists are supposed to give you time because album covers really represent them, but I find a lot of people, maybe because they are so busy, disconnect from that moment. Different artists are like, “When are we going to be done? I’ve gotta go, I have to catch a flight.” And I’m like, “OK, you can be done now and I can draw you. I’m still going to get paid so that’s fine. If you want to go, you can go at any time. This is for you, this is about you.” What’s beautiful is Eminem’s one of the few artists who, at the end of a long day when I don’t know how to top what I did, he’s like, “Hey, can we do one more shot in my hotel room? I had the idea that I wanted to be writing to my daughter.” Even on the fly he’s creating and really giving a lot of himself to the work, which I have only massive respect for. He was very connected at every single moment that I
Jonathan Mannion: www.jonathanmannion.com
SLIM, MARSHALL, EMINEM I was doing a lot of work with Interscope, and when they told me there was an opportunity to shoot this kid, I said, “I’m totally down, and I know where I can take this project.” I shot The Marshall Mathers LP and there were three versions of it. They really wanted to focus more on his character than haze over what he was about. From Slim Shady he became Marshall Mathers, and then this album was the final reveal of Eminem, the artist.
talent that’s not a gimmick at all. I know that he knows what he’s doing. I have massive respect for him. I [especially] like The Marshall Mathers LP. I felt a real moment of connection. I got in at the moment when he started to reveal who he was and have many of the visuals that defined him. ENCORE I’m humbled that I was chosen to bring this thing to life. We had a great working relationship and it was an honor to work with somebody who is so connected to his work—visuals as well as the mastery of his craft. I say it to a lot of people, but I really do feel that he is a genius in a lot of ways, because he can see the bigger picture of his journey. I had great conversations with him during Marshall Mathers and The Eminem Show. We saw eye to eye, so I’m glad to look back and feel like we really nailed it. This was an exclamation point and what visually brought the project to life.
spent with him during the years that I did shoot him. I really felt that was the peak of him being him. Certainly his success has never dwindled; he’s bigger than ever. He’s one of the best to ever do it. YOUR BIGGEST FAN I’m a fan. I’m a huge fan. I’m a fan of
COVERING THE GENRE I moved to New York in ‘93 to work with Richard Avedon—it was my first job straight out of college. I ended up working with a lot of heavy hitters in fashion, shooters like Stephen Klein, but my interest was always in music. I was in college radio, and in high school I was in all the clubs. NWA and Ice T and Slick Rick opened my eyes to this world; I wanted to make a contribution. When I arrived in New York, I realized the access that I had to everybody… I was just out in the clubs. I was shooting Biggie and early Jay-Z. Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt was my first album cover. From that moment it was like, “OK, we want the kid that did that.” Then I shot DMX, and then it was Ja Rule, and these people who were exploding on the underground scene became part of popular culture. There was a moment that I realized I could get complete coverage of this genre, and I still believe in it to this day. I think the statements that Hip-Hop has made are massive, and there’s no disconnect with what is now popular culture. These are all people who are in the spotlight now, so I fancy myself as a bit of a historian.
MOVING FORWARD
© 1997 Brian Smith
We’ve joined forces to move our industry forward. Learn more at apanational.com CHAPTERS: ATLANTA CHARLOTTE, NC COLORADO LOS ANGELES MIDWEST NEW YORK NORTHWEST SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO WASHINGTON, DC IMAGE: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 71 APA EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jessica’s images are filled with mystery and poetry.
Jessica is currently working WHY I on a South West-based LIKE IT, story in collaboration BY AURELIE with Virgilio Tzaj, JEZEQUEL, and editing for EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: her blog, Jessica’s images are Ghost Girls. filled with mystery and poetry. Nothing is explained: we don’t know who these people are or where they are. They stand still, looking away, or with their face hidden, oblivious to our gaze. Although the images can look different—some crisp, others weathered and muted—there is a distinctive link between them. Whatever technique Jessica uses, her narrative remains constant. And the story she tells is about silence, longing, and ghosts.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Jessica Olm: www.jessicaolm.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Jessica Olm is a Brooklyn-based, fine art photographer. Born and raised in Upstate New York, her work is deeply rooted in a relationship with the natural world. Since receiving her B.A. in Photography from SVA, she has split her time between rural landscapes and her urban backyard. Jessica has spent the last four years traveling across the country in search of locations that have a larger-than-life quality to them; photographing herself and her friends in environments that are shrouded with mystery. The outcome displays only partial stories: faces that are obscured, settings that are doubleexposed or completely unrecognizable, or abstractions of both. By doing so, she forces viewers to come to their own conclusion of the storyline.
IMAGE: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 73
Although the images can look different— some crisp, others weathered and muted— there is a distinctive link between them.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Morgan Heim: www.moheimphotography.com
HOW DO YOU DEFINE CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY, AS OPPOSED TO NATURE OR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY? People have a lot of different definitions for it. For me, it’s taking nature photography and putting it into context, usually with how we live our lives. Joel Sartore said it pretty well: Nature photography would be a picture of a butterfly on a flower, and conservation photography would be a picture of a butterfly on a flower with a bulldozer coming at it in the background. WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? I went to undergrad and got a degree in zoology. Then I worked in science for a few years as a research assistant at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. I started to learn more about the issues that were tied to the science. I also started taking pictures while we were doing our research, and I decided that was the direction I wanted to move in—being one of those people who helped to make the issues more understandable and relatable. So I went back to school and got a master’s in environmental journalism from the University of Colorado.
“no matter how urban our habitat may be, we all live in the natural world.”
WHO ARE YOUR CLIENTS? I’ve worked for everyone from Smithsonian to National Parks Magazine and Preservation magazine—a lot of nature-oriented magazines. I’ve also done some work for National Geographic News Watch and websites like Discovery Channel Planet Green, and I work for nonprofits on contract for specific projects. Right now I’m working for a group called Rocky Mountain Wild, which is producing a video to raise money for a wildlife overpass bridge planned for the Vail area here in Colorado. It’s a huge endeavor. I think it would be the biggest bridge in the lower 48.
Interview by Aimee Baldrige Photos by Morgan Heim
A
s the New York photo industry was reminded this past November when Superstorm Sandy swept into town, no matter how urban our habitat may be, we all live in the natural world. The current status of our relationship with it? It’s complicated. And while many of us may pause to contemplate the complications only on a stormy day, for some photographers exploring them is a vocation. Colorado-based conservation photographer and multimedia documentarian Morgan Heim, who in her early thirties is one of the younger associate fellows of the International League of Conservation Photographers, talks to us about how she has forged a successful career in this specialized, topical and sometimes dangerous field.
The other thing I do is fund big personal projects. A colleague and I crowd-funded our “Cat in Water” project to document fishing cats in Thailand. And now some of those images are being picked up for publication. AND YOU ALSO DO SOME WRITING? Yes. That’s really come in handy. DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT IN YOUR FIELD TO HAVE A RANGE OF SKILLS, AS OPPOSED TO BEING SOLELY A PHOTOGRAPHER? Yeah, it’s really helpful. A lot of journalists now juggle a lot of different roles. Sometimes that’s seen as a detriment. Some editors are not so sure about people who say they can write and take pictures. They might think that if you’re also a writer, maybe that skill set isn’t developed enough and you’re spreading yourself too thin. Then there are editors who give you the job because you can write the story and take the pictures. For the most part, I’ve found that it’s come in really handy to be able to do more than one thing, especially
IMAGE: BREAKING IN-“Morgan Heim–Conservation Photographer” Page 77
when freelancing. I’m able to get assignments that only require one of the skill sets, so I don’t always have to be getting the photo assignment in order to get a job. I can just write a story, and maybe on the next assignment I’ll be shooting pictures, and on the next assignment I’ll be doing both. It diversifies the job prospects. HOW MUCH DO YOU TRAVEL FOR WORK? Lately it’s been a lot, but some of it is not that far, which is good. I do a lot of traveling up to Wyoming and to other parts of Colorado and New Mexico, and then I occasionally get to travel farther distances, like to Thailand or back to the East Coast.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
WHY IS IT GOOD TO WORK IN NEARBY AREAS? There are a lot of stories happening all around us. What’s nice about working on stories near where you live is that you can document them all the time. You can really build up a large body of work pretty quickly working on assignments that are close to where you live, and it gets you in the habit of seeing and shooting and structuring a story. A lot of times I’ve been hired because I was a photographer who always worked on things in my state and they had an assignment out here. Rather than pay for
IMAGE: BREAKING IN-“Morgan Heim–Conservation Photographer” Page 79
DO YOU FEEL THAT BEING A CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHER IS A VIABLE CAREER, FINANCIALLY SPEAKING? I feel like you should ask me again in five years. I always think that I’m barely holding it together. Even when you have assignments, lots of times you’re not paid until maybe a year later because you get paid on publication. So it’s really helpful to have other ways of making sure that bills get paid as you’re getting started. You can definitely build up enough of a momentum with assignments that you can be relatively assured of money coming in every month eventually. It helps to diversify. It’s definitely hard. I choose to believe it’s viable because this is all I want to do; so far I’ve been
a photographer to travel, they wanted one near where the assignment was being done. IS CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY DANGEROUS? It can be dangerous just in the methods that you have to use to get photos. Aerial photography is a very useful tool in conservation photography, so just getting in those little planes can be dangerous. Or you might be in situations that are sensitive, like going out with rangers who are trying to prevent poaching and ending up where there could be gunfire. I was expecting you to say something about falling into a canyon or getting mauled by a wild animal, not about dangers from people.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
able to make it work and don’t have plans of quitting anytime soon. WHY IS IT ALL YOU WANT TO DO? WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT IT? It’s something that I kind of fantasized about ever since I was a kid. I always loved nature and animals and being outside. I loved exploring. I grew up in the Chesapeake Bay, right on a river, and I would always be exploring the marshes. I always wanted to explore the world. I wanted to go to the places I saw in National Geographic, not just be the one looking at the pictures. I wanted to be the person who actually went there and smelled the smells and heard the sounds and met the people and saw the animals. I just wanted to be in it, for better or worse.
T h e re ’s d e f i n i te ly a l ot o f opportunity for that too, but in conservation photography, a lot of stories are very strongly tied to people. There’s a lot of conflict in environmental issues. You do have those dangers of going into areas where you could get physically injured, or get sick because you got bitten by some weird insect. DO CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHERS GET TRAINING IN OUTDOORSMANSHIP OR PHYSICAL SKILLS? Yeah. A friend of mine had to take rock-climbing courses for an assignment. It’s definitely helpful to have a lot of extra skills along those lines. I know how to camp for weeks at a time in really harsh conditions. Having some basic understanding of how to be a smart hiker and having some survival training is really helpful.
The “Breaking In” series asks successful young professionals in photo-related fields about what it took to get into their line of work, what it’s like to make a living doing what they do, and how they made the transition from student days to working life. You can find more “Breaking In” articles and a wealth of other resources for photography students, educators, and emerging pros at MAC-On-Campus.com.
le book PRESENTS
THE CUSTOM-MADE TRADESHOW FOR THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY
loS ANGeleS - JANUARY 31 ST PARIS - SPRING NeW YoRk - JUNE 5 TH & 6 TH beRlIN - FALL THE PLACE TO FIND TALENT FOR ALL YOUR CAMPAIGNS, EDITORIALS, AND OTHER VISUAL PRODUCTIONS
© Keith haring Foundation
BY INVITATION ONLY REGISTER NOW | WWW.LEBOOk.COM/CONNECTIONS
IMAGE: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 81
Every day we choose and present on our Fa c e b o o k p a g e a Photographer of the Day, who is t h e n re s p o n s i b le for garnering as many “likes” as they can to become the Photographer of the Week, thus earning a write up on our website. A week l a te r , t h e fa n d o m ends, and with it, so does the Internet fame. We thought it would be nice to revive the title’s glory for three photographers from this past quarter beyond our virtual wall and into the pages of Resource.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Lloyd Bishop: www.lloydbishop.com
“There’s no short cut to getting anywhere you want to be,” says portrait photographer Lloyd Bishop. Growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, Lloyd considered photography as nothing more than a hobby. It’s only now that he realizes his profession in retrospect, as he recalls, “The only subject I ever really enjoyed was art.” As the behind-the-scenes shooter for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Lloyd captures a distinctive furtive glance point of view that makes us feel as though we were there with him. And not surprisingly, he cites Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Nick Danziger, and Harry Benson as his influences. “I’ve always been drawn to the fly on the wall style of documentary and the intimate portrait,” Lloyd remarks. In order to remain as nonintrusive as possible, he refuses to use a flash so as to retain the authenticity of the moment and explains
that, “I don’t just see these images as press images, but also as an archive of the history of the show and the amazing talent that passes through the doors and in front of my camera.” Landing this photographer’s dream job was “like a lot of jobs that come around,” Lloyd says, “it’s word of mouth and the right people seeing your work.”
“THERE’s NO SHORT CUT TO GETTING ANYWHERE YOU WANT TO BE.”
<< 09-03-20 12 WINNER
IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE WEEK-“Llloyd Bishop” Page 83
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE WEEK-“Llloyd Bishop” Page 85
“incidental and intimate, capturing vulnerability.”
Growing up in Annapolis, MD, portrait photographer Natalie Obermaier recalls that her “happiest moments were spent endlessly picking blue crabs on a picnic table with corn on the cob and serious amounts of old bay.” It’s a brief yet telling insight into Natalie’s photographic sensibility, which often appears both incidental and intimate, capturing vulnerability w h i l e ke e p i n g with enough critical d i s t a n c e to re m a i n unpretentious. Receiving her formal education at Drexel— which allowed Natalie the unique opportunity to earn credit through working as a model, assistant, and master printer—she emphasizes t h e i mp o r t a n c e i n u n d e r st a n d i n g h ow subjects are being seen,
learning that “not every negative is vibrating with excitement from the get-go, but an ability to see the ultimate end potential helps separate the good from the mediocre.” At the time of our interview, Natalie mentioned that she was tempted to begin shooting exclusively in film because of the
<< 08-28-2012 WINNER thrill that comes with “discovering that I did in fact catch the magic.” She says of her work, “The world is just a stage on which to put your subjects. Frame them with light and structure and with a little magic you breathe life into the theater.”
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE WEEK-“Natalie Obermaier” Page 87
Natalie Obermaier: www.natalieobermaier.com / http://store.natalieobermaier.com
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE WEEK-“Natalie Obermaier” Page 89
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
“the strongest form of communication.”
<< 19-10-2012 WINNER following in the footsteps of his father who photographed his own military service. The types of cameras he uses—Canon DSLRs, Leica’s rangefinders, a Fuji x100, a Mamyia medium format, Horseman Large format, or an iPhone 4S—prove to vary as widely as the subject matter and visual tones of his photography. As he explains, “I select the subjects for my personal work mostly by where my heart takes me,” and concludes, “It all depends what I shoot and what feels right for the mission.” GIL LAVI’S PRIZE IS A 1 YEAR PRO MEMBERSHIP TO VIEWBUG
Gil Lavi: www.gillavi.com
For Gil Lavi, leaving behind a year ago his studio in Tel Aviv that overlooked the Mediterranean was not an easy decision, but he had become a big fish in a small pond. He felt that “the scale of things being done in Israel was always limiting to an extent.” It seems Gil’s outright rejection of limitations is an extension of how he conceives photography a s “ t h e s t ro n ge s t fo r m o f communication.” His work spans across photojournalism and commercial photography, and, as he explains, “shows a complex situation in a simplified visualization that can also sometimes bear a resemblance to abstract art.” While serving in the Combat Engineering Corp, Gil injured his knee and subsequently was asked to serve as the personal photographer for the chief of the ground forces—serendipitously
IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE WEEK-“Gil Lavi” Page 91
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
GIVE US YOUR 10-SECOND ELEVATOR PITCH. WHO ARE YOU? I ’ m O l i v e r Wa r d e n a . k . a . ROBOTBIGFOOT. I’ve been making art professionally, ferrying between the physical and the virtual and the analog and digital. I’m a Cleveland boy.
a thousand times.”—“No, you haven’t.” He exposed that my mind was in the Matrix. My memories of the past are a mix of trips I’ve taken and places I’ve never physically been. It’s a little confusing. The emotions are there, but I have to remind myself what’s real and how it’s real.
“ROBOTBIGFOOT.” WHY? I was born in the ’70’s and grew up watching The Six Million Dollar Man. There’s an episode where Steve Austin comes across Big Foot, rips his arms off, and finds out it’s actually a robot. It became my avatar name for game playing and it stuck. Only two people have ever known the reference.
WHAT THE FUCK IS CAMERA-LESS PHOTOGRAPHY? It’s making photographic i mage s by not u si ng a came ra. (Long pause, blank stare.) I take a screen grab, manipulate it in Photoshop, using motifs from the history of photography, and then print the image on archival paper. People’s faces drop when they realize this place isn’t real, even though they’ve invested in it as a real place. They’ve had an authentic emotional and intellectual response, but then question their own experience. Truth in photography is tough. The ultimate question is, “How do we see?” The camera is a construct, reflecting the mind’s eye.
SO YOU’RE LIVING IN TWO WORLDS, WITH TWO IDENTITIES. DO YOU EVER GET MIXED UP BETWEEN OLIVER WARDEN AND ROBOTBIGFOOT? HOW DO YOU DISTINGUISH THE TWO? I had a friend over some time ago. As we were looking at one of my images, I told him, “I’ve been down that hallway
IN A 2008 INTERVIEW FOR STONETHROWER.COM, YOU’VE SAID, “IT TOOK A WHILE FOR ME TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THE IDEA THAT I WAS A PHOTOGRAPHER BECAUSE I ALWAYS ASSOCIATED THE PHOTOGRAPHER WITH THE CAMERA. ONCE I LET THIS GO IT OPENED UP A ENTIRELY NEW IDEA OF WHAT THAT MEANT.” HOW CAN THE REST OF US DISASSOCIATE THE PHOTOGRAPHER FROM THE CAMERA? HOW ELSE MIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY DISASSOCIATED FROM THE CAMERA TAKE FORM? P h oto g r a p hy i s t h e to o l o f documentation. For me, the screen grab documents, the pixel replaces the grain, and the monitor becomes the camera as a porthole into “the other worlds.” Christopher Bucklow is another cameraless photographer. He traces the shadow of a person on a sheet of aluminum foil, pokes holes in the foil, and then exposes photo paper underneath to sunlight. That’s an alternative camera-less option.
“ROBOT BIGFOOT.” RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Oliver Warden: www.robotbigfoot.com
By Janet Alexander Photos by Oliver Warden
From his studio apartment located on a mysteriously unmarked street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Oliver Warden displays selected works on his gessoed white walls to resemble a gallery. Walking through the domestic exhibit, most of his pieces are oversized, stretching nearly from floor to ceiling, which is why I immediately notice the only small pieces in the room. Three 4" x 6"glossy prints are pinned side-byside, two of which are of nondescript city high rises, while the third is unmistakable. I’m looking at The Twin Towers, but the image is dated January 23rd, 2011. Under the pseudonym ROBOTBIGFOOT, Oliver has been creating so-called “video game photography” since 2002. He calls it “camera-less photography.” This got us confused too, down at the Resource office, so, after exchanging puzzled looks, raised eyebrows, and a resounding round of “I don’t get it,” we tracked Oliver down and demanded some answers.
CAMERA-LESS PHOTOGRAPHY
“I would never hurt anyone physically, but I do want to destroy your idea of what art is. It’s my life-long ambition.”
IMAGE: THE EXPERIMENT-“Camera-less Photography” Page 95
“Forty is nothing. I make art; it’s my work, my passion, and my recreation. If I was, say, a book editor reading forty hours a week, you’d think, “Of course, yeah, that makes sense.” It’s the same thing. ” RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY OFF THIS FORM OF PHOTOGRAPHY? I sell some of my prints, but I’m most proud of the money I’ve raised, not made. I’ve been contributing to ACRIA— AIDS Community Research Initiative of America—since 2006. It’s very meaningful to me.
RUMOR HAS IT YOU SPEND APPROXIMATELY FORTY HOURS A WEEK INSIDE COUNTERSTRIKE, LEFT 4 DEAD, AND THE LIKE. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A GAMING JUNKIE? IS YOUR ART DRIVEN BY A VIDEO GAME ADDICTION? Forty is nothing. I make art; it’s my work, my passion, and my recreation. If I was, say, a book editor reading forty hours a week, you’d think, “Of course, yeah, that makes sense.” It’s the same thing. YOU’VE STALKED PEOPLE IN CENTRAL PARK AT MIDNIGHT TO “CAPTURE” THEM ON VIDEO, LIVED IN A SCHOOL WALL FOR A WEEK, AND SAT INSIDE A CHAIR WHILE PEOPLE UNKNOWINGLY SAT ON YOUR LAP. ARE THERE NO LIMITS TO WHAT YOU’LL DO FOR ART? I would never hurt anyone physically, but I do want to destroy your idea of what art is. It’s my life-long ambition.
YOU’VE SAID, “THE THING I’M STARTING TO SUSPECT IS THAT FANTASY IS LESS OF AN ALTERNATIVE TO REALITY AND MORE OF A LIFESTYLE CHOICE, LIKE CHOOSING TO BE HEALTHY OR EDUCATED.” WHAT IS THE FANTASY LIFESTYLE? I remember going to Disneyland and walking into some restaurant with animal heads mounted on the wall, and then all of the sudden they started singing. Even in this dumpy restaurant, it never breaks face; it never ceases. World of Warcraft, SecondLife, even Facebook, all function the same way. We choose to enter into these worlds, fully immersing ourselves, and we never have to leave the fantasy; we can build it out. We create our identity online, and manage it virtually through software.
BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC.” ARTISTS ARE SUPERHEROES, HUH? WHAT’S YOUR SUPERPOWER, OLIVER? I think of the story of Superman that was created by an artist and a writer in Cleveland, which is where I’m from. This guy has superpowers that alienate him from Smallville, his hometown. He comes to the metropolis, finds The League of Justice—his peer group who’ve also felt alienated—and they exercise their powers while forming alter egos. This is not unlike the story of artists who also feel alienated by their own Smallvilles, move to the city, find a community of others just like them, and go on to invent who they are. The superpower isn’t flying or invisibility; few people can understand the power of the artist. Our power is talent.
WE’RE QUOTING YOU AGAIN; “SUPERHEROES STAND IN NOT FOR MYTHIC SUPERNATURAL GODS, BUT FOR THE STRUGGLE OF ARTISTS TO BE UNDERSTOOD
TELL US, WHAT ARE YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS? I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. When it comes to change, there’s no time like the present!
IMAGE: THE EXPERIMENT-“Camera-Less Photography” Page 97
THE LIVE SHOW Photography of
By Janet Alexander | Photos by Chris Bernay
hotojournalism strives to capture the sense of its subject as it existed the moment its image was taken, but for live show photographers, this extraordinary standard of representation is amplified to express sound. This niche profession strives to produce photographs that not only transport you to a time and place, but also evoke the music to make the visual audible. While no two photographers are ever exactly alike, there’s no doubt that live show performance photography is a specialty that requires the skills and personality to get the shot amidst rowdy fanatical crowds, restrictive venues, inconsistent lighting, and nonstop musical performance action. We here at Resource were thrilled to happen upon Argentinian photographer Chris Bernay, whose talent may be best understood when he says, “I like surprises when going to shows.”
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Chris Bernay: www.chrisbernay.com
“DON’T BE AFRAID, JUST BE RESPECTFUL, ACT QUICKLY AND SILENTLY, AND YOU WILL BE FINE!”
“KEEPING HIS EQUIPMENT TO A BARE MINIMUM, HE ONLY CARRIES WHATEVER HIS POCKETS AND HANDS WILL FIT.” Bernay was not so much born to photograph live show performances as much as he was really just born into shooting live-show performances. As he said himself, “I never really had a plan, it just happened.” Growing up, there were always cameras and lenses lying around the house. Both his
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
father and uncle were amateur photographers, keen to pass on the family tradition to Bernay. After being taught the basics from his father, Bernay inherited his Nikon FE. “In my early years I didn’t really have a clear subject in mind, I just loaded my camera and took pictures of whatever caught my eye.”
It can be said that Bernay was also born into a time that proved to be equally prophetic, in 1979, during Jorge Rafael Videla’s dictatorship. However, it was not Videla’s reign, but rather the subsequent years following the country’s liberation in 1983 that brought Bernay his photographic muse. “National
bands were finally able to compose songs freely and were an important exposure for artistic freedom,” recalled Bernay. “I grew up with that, music playing everywhere.” At first thinking he’d be a musician, Bernay soon realized instead that he loved visual arts as much as music, and at age fifteen, he began taking pictures of lives shows, combining his passion for both. Bernay still thinks back to attending his first show
in 1994—Argentinian rock icon and Latin Grammy winner, Andres Calamaro—with apparent chagrin. “I proudly hung my 35mm on my shoulders, with a 100 ISO film loaded and just one roll! I had no idea what I was going to encounter,” said Bernay. “The photos I took that day were horrid.” So horrid, in fact, that Bernay didn’t take a single live show photograph again until 2008, when a friend asked him if he’d shoot
his show. With fourteen years of advertising photography production experience behind him at the time, Bernay was confident enough to give live show photography a second shot, as it were. He recalled, “I started going to every show in Buenos Aires I could possibly afford. After that, with time, I started getting better, and eventually it became my favorite thing to do.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 236 IMAGE: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 101
W
i
n
n
e
R:
“A Soldier’s Memorial” by Trey Amick
By Janet Alexander
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
RUNNER UP 1: “Walk by” by JT Jones icking off in September, ViewBug, an online community that holds regular photo contests, and PhotoResourceHub, a photography co n s u l t i n g s e r v i ce p rov i d e r founded by Skip Cohen, teamed up to create the “In the Likeness of the Great Masters” contest. Before the invention of cameras, putting paint on a canvas was the equivalent of pointing and shooting; the “great masters” here refer to historical painters whose timeless artistry has continued to inspire creativity, expression, and reflection. The competition harks back to the essential elements of image-making—perspective, l i g h t i n g a n d co lo ra t i o n — a n d asked contestants to recreate the aesthetic sense of a painting through a photograph. Renowned fine art photography marketing and licensing expert Mary Virginia Swanson and Resource Magazine’s o w n E d i t o r - i n - C h i e f A u re l i e Jezequel were the judges who selected the final three finalists. Resource congratulates the winning photography finalists.
R U N N E R U P 2: “Forrest Fairy Queen” by Ania Gajda
IMAGE: CONTEST-“Viewbug” Page 103
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Alex Stoddard: www.alexstoddard.4ormat.com
While photography may be as ubiquitous—and subsequently, as competitive—as ever, take comfort in our most recent muse, Alex Stoddard. “I’ve always felt a need to create,” Alex says, “and what I wanted to know, I would force myself to learn.” It’s this will and determination that has led to the dozen-plus publications that credit his name, in addition to two gallery exhibitions in France, and a client list which includes Universal Music Group. Completely self-taught through experimentation and Internet tutorials, Alex’s portfolio not only belies the fact that he’s eighteen-years-old, but more significantly, serves as a living testament to how, “Age aint’ nothin’ but a number.” Though he may be young, Alex undoubtedly displays a self-awareness beyond his years, noting, “I am not ignorant of the fact that my age is a substantial branding tool.” Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Alex grew up in Georgia and first began taking self-portraits in his wooded backyard two years ago. “I remember taking a photograph of myself, while standing in front of my bedroom window, and seeing something different in it,” Alex recalls. “There was something about the way the light fell and the colors glowed that made it feel like something more than just a snapshot.” From that moment on, Alex knew he’d found his creative outlet. He now gushes about how his favorite aspect of photography is, “having the ability to tell stories and create new worlds with images.” Characteristically, Alex’s images are inspired by inter-relating nature with the human form such as how, “the branches of trees become arms and fingers, a winding river becomes the delicate curve of a spine.” After graduating from high school this past spring, Alex moved to Orange, California, where he says, “I feel like here I have a much greater chance of making something of myself with my photography and coming together with other creative minds to make even better art.” Ever since completing his “365 project,” which involved taking a self-portrait every day for the entire year of 2011, the public eye of photography fanatics and industry figureheads alike have turned onto Alex’s hauntingly surreal portraiture aesthetic. Ultimately, Alex’s passion for photography is rooted in personal escape, as he states, “I live out adventures in my photos that I never would dream of in my ‘real’ life.”
“I AM NOT IGNORANT OF THE FACT THAT MY AGE IS A SUBSTANTIAL BRANDING TOOL.”
By Janet Alexander | Photos by Alex Stoddard
IMAGE: UNDERAGE-“Alex Stoddard” Page 105
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
IMAGE: UNDERAGE-“Alex Stoddard” Page 107
Triple Scoop Music: Elevating Your Soundtrack, Legally By Justin Sedor
or professional photographers, videographers, and other creative professionals looking to produce something truly great, visuals are only part of the story. In an age where the collective consciousness is increasingly dominated by slick video and multimedia creations, the success of a project can hinge on a number of factors that have nothing to do with what is captured by the camera. In particular, music has taken on great importance for those looking to stand out. These days, a song is not just a song—it can make or break a project. That royaltyfree garbage you set to your slideshows in the ‘90s? It’s just not going to cut it anymore.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Of course, things are not as simple as finding the right musical accompaniment and plugging it into Final Cut. While the Internet has made it easier than ever to obtain any track you can think of, with YouTube, Vimeo and others making everything accessible and trackable, it’s also more likely that those who use music without permission will get caught. Enter Triple Scoop Music, a licensing service that makes it easy and affordable for creative professionals to find the right music to help their projects stand out, without having to worry about violating copyright laws.
Founder Roy Ashen, a longtime musician himself, acknowledges what many photographers have already figured out: “The last thing people need when trying to build a business is a record label or a publisher or an artist coming after you. Most people understand that music licensing is part of the process now.” Over 100,000 creative p ro fe ss i o n a l s h a v e u s e d Triple Scoop for a wide array of applications, ranging from self-promotional materials for prospective clients to high-end ad campaigns and Hollywood f i l m s . A n d t h e p ro s a re buzzing: Triple Scoop is a hit
with everyone from Kevin Kubota to Jim Garner. Here’s how it works: users pick a song, any song, from Triple Scoop’s music collection, pay a one-time fee, and receive a license to use the song for as many projects as they want, guiltfree. Prices start at $60 per song for single users; Triple Scoop offers custom licenses to suit the needs of corporate customers, or those purchasing licenses for film or TV projects. And the music selection i s i m p re s s i v e . Tr i p le Scoop’s offerings include over 10,000 tracks by a wide range of artists, from Grammy winners like producer Andrew
Scheps (Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers) to emerging talents. Each song is carefully tagged by theme, mood, instrumentation, tempo, lyrics, and more. All this results in a classleading database that makes it painless—fun, even—to find the perfect track for any project. Every artist and every song have been handpicked by Ashen and his team with the needs of creatives in mind. It’s all about helping users find that magical combination of visuals and sounds—as Ashen says, “If you’re a photographer or a creative professional, you’re looking for music that elevates the emotion of your work without distracting from its presentation.”
Perhaps most importantly, Triple Scoop is committed to treating its artists fairly. 50% of the company’s profits go back to the artists themselves, who also own all of the copyrights to the music on the site. Indeed, the model is so artistoriented, Ashen says, that some artists make more money licensing their music through Triple Scoop than through record sales.
“MUSIC IS A VITAL PART OF TELLING A GOOD STORY.”
Triple Scoop is built on a principle that the best photographers have known for a while now—that music is a vital part of telling a good story. Ashen says it best: “The most important question is, whose story am I telling? What kind of mood am I trying to set?”
daylight...tungsten...bi-color Battery Options
F-stop Control
Daylight Model
Tungsten Model
Bi-color Model
www.limelite.us.com
DMX Built-in
Light Wall
Power LED
AC / DC Powered
Remote Link
Get Creative with optional accessories including...
Get Creative with Pro-level specifications including...
• Color Control Filter Set • Color Control FX Set • 2x1 Joining Kit • 2x2 Joining Kit • Barn-Door Set • Ceiling Mounting Kit
• Up to 5200 Lux • DMX Input & DMX Output for remote operation • User-set power or f-stop mode* • Bright digital display • Mains or Battery Operation
The Mosaic from Limelite is a 12” square LED panel which is available as a daylight balanced panel, a tungsten panel or even as a bi-color panel with variable color temperature...the choice is yours...
Up to 3 times brighter than comparable LED panels ‘Limelite’® is a registered trademarks of Bowens International Ltd. All models and technical specifications featured here are subject to change and without notice. © 2012 Bowens International Ltd. *f-stop mode not available on Bi-color model.
Saks Fifth Avenue, Koleston, Oil Of Olay, Remington, Garnier, The Today Show, Fighting The Frizz, Aveno (and many more). Eva Longoria, Halle Berry, Catherine Zeta Jones, Harry Connick Jr., Jessica Lang, Heidi Klum, Brooke Shields, Tom Cruise (and many more). Many people spend much of their lives striving to be recognized. They endure one thankless job after another, hoping for that one big break that may never come. Others, on the other hand, find the limelight without even looking. Famed hair stylist, Patrick Melville, is certainly one of the others. A former boxer, hailing from Manchester, England, Melville’s foray into hairstyling was somewhat arbitrary. “It was kind of a fluke in a way,” Melville said, in a recent interview with Resource. “Manchester was a very industrial city and I really didn’t want to go into any kind of building industry. I was very creative so I thought of hair dressing.” At a young age, Melville became an assistant and then a stylist in Manchester. When he was twenty, he took a trip to New York and fell in love with the city. He decided to move across the pond in 1979.
“There’s a rule that when you go to a new salon and you come from a different place, you have to become an assistant again. So here I was, at twenty years old, becoming an assistant again.” But he wasn’t an assistant for long. He decided to make a phone call that would subsequently change his life. “One day I got kind of pissed off because I was working under people that I thought I was actually better than. So I called the beauty editor of Glamour Magazine and pitched a story from a payphone on Madison Avenue.” That phone call led to a twelve-page spread in Glamour and immediately propelled Melville to stylist. A week later he found himself on a shoot in Cabo with Patrick Demarchelier. “You’re only a phone call or email away, you’ve got to take a chance.”
In 2007 Melville opened his current salon, Patrick Melville Salon, which doubles as an art gallery. “We have different works on the wall at a time. From Andy Warhol to Picasso to Dali, things like that. We’re like a gallery/salon. Every time somebody comes in there’s something different hanging on the walls.” Being a man who has done it all in the world of hair styling, Melville sees a clear distinction between cutting hair on-set and in a salon. “When you’re in the studio you’re not cutting hair, per se, you’re styling. You’re creating a look, an image, an illusion of something. When you’re in the salon, it’s really about cutting hair and precision. I think the best hair dressers who work in studios are hair dressers who worked in salons first and did their basic training there, because then they understand the philosophy of what hair will do.”
INSPIRATION: “You can look at things in the past that inspire you, like hairstyles in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but put your own signature on it and try to stay current as much as you can. Clothes change, fashion changes—hair should also change. You have to constantly be open to learning new ideas.” RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Patrick Melville: www.artistsbytimothypriano.com / www.patrickmelvillesalon.com
Priano pin By Sam Cha sy of Artists by Timothy te ur co s to Pho
a j p rod uc t i ons
ny
ny
a j p rod uc t i ons
a j p r o d u c t i o n s | n y, i n c p r o d u c t io n - c a s t i n g - l o c a t i o n s c o u ting
9 1 7. 2 0 9 . 0 8 2 3 2 1 2 . 9 7 9 . 7 5 8 5 www.a jproductionsny.com ajprodnyc@mac.com
FILM FILM THE HISTORY, THE GEAR, THE DEMISE AND THE FUTURE OF FILM. Opening Photo by Greg Neumaier
BIZ: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 113
FILM CARTRIDGE
In this day and age, we don't have to use different films to get specific looks—applications like DxO FilmPack will simulate different films characters. But for digital photographers who admire past masters and the effects they created with film, it might help to know what type of film they actually used. And with the current resurgence of film photography and the lo-fi movement, it's good to know what films are still available. Here is a simple compilation of film that did (or on the verge of “did”) or still do exist. The classics, the standards, the novel. The list is not complete by any means—it would require volumes to list and characterize every film. I'm sure some great ones are amiss here, and everyone had their own favorites. By Jeff Niki I Last Entry by Chris Gampat I Photos by Adam Sherwin
AN EXPLORATION OF SOME OF THE FILMS THAT TOUCHED OUR HEARTS THROUGHOUT TIME.
>1.
>2.
>3.
>4.
>5.
>6.
>7.
>8.
>9.
>10.
>11.
>12.
>13.
>14.
>15.
>16.
>17.
>18.
>19.
>20.
1. AGFACHROME RSX50
12. FUJI SUPERIA 400
This Agfa color slide film gives you good neutral skin tones.
Good all around color negative film—wide latitude.
2. AGFAPAN APX 100
13. ILFORD DELTA 100
Good general purpose medium speed b&w negative film.
14. ILFORD FP4 PLUS
Fuji’s color slide film—a real workhorse in the ‘80 and 90s.
Ilford’s mid-speed ISO 125 film. The equivalent of the Kodak’s Plus-X.
4. FUJI FP 3000B
15. ILFORD HP5 PLUS
Fuji’s instant 3000 ISO b&w high speed pack film—very sharp. Polaroid made the original type 107 3000 ISO.
Ilford’s high-speed ISO 400 film—their answer to Kodak’s popular Tri-X. Although the Tri-X was ubiquitous, some photographers preferred the HP5 Plus over it.
Fuji’s ultra-fine grain ISO 100 b&w film.
16. ILFORD ORTHO PLUS
6. FUJI FP 100C
Ortho copy film from Ilford. Some used it for high contrast art photos.
Fuji’s instant color pack film, widely used for test exposure—used in the same way as Polaroid 669.
7. FUJI PROVIA This fine grain film is saturated but has still more natural tones than Fuji’s Velvia.
8. FUJI RTP Fuji’s 64 ISO speed tungsten balanced film.
9. FUJI INSTAX MINI Instant “Fun” film for Instax cameras only—makes credit card sized pics.
10. FUJI INSTAX WIDE Another instant fun film from Fuji-Wide view.
11. FUJI NEOPAN 400 Fuji’s counter to Kodak’s Tri-X.
>22.
>23.
>24.
>25.
>26.
>27.
>28.
>29.
>30.
>31.
>32.
>33.
>34.
>35.
>36.
>37.
>38.
Ilford’s ISO 100 fine grain film with Delta Technology.
3. FUJICHROME 50D
5. FUJI NEOPAN 100 “ACROS”
>21.
17. ILFORD PANF PLUS Ilford’s slow ISO 50 very fine grain film. It’s the equivalent of the Kodak’s Panatomic-X.
18. IMPOSSIBLE PX 600 The Impossible Project resurrected and improved Polaroid 600 instant film. Theirs comes in many different types.
19. IMPOSSIBLE PX 70 From The Impossible Project, the reborn SX-70 film for all those cool SX70 cameras collecting dust in your house.
20. KODAK PORTRA 400 - 120MM Professional color negative film in 120mm format. Popular film for wedding and portrait photographers using medium format cameras.
21. KODAK 2475 RECORDING FILM
25. KODAK EKTACHROME EPR
29. KODAK KODACHROME
Kodak’s “surveillance” film used by some artists for its very grainy look. Allows people to shoot with very little amount of light.
This iconic film was the standard of the industry. Lots of money was made using this film.
22. KODAK EKTACHROME PLUS
26. KODAK EKTACHROME EPT
33. KODAK TRI-X
37. POLAROID 669
The venerable Kodachrome with “nice bright colors”... Just ask Paul Simon.
ISO 400—what can you say about this film? Lots of famous b&w photos were shot with it.
This Polaroid film was used often to proof EPR film on the job.
30. KODAK PANATOMIC X
34. KODAK ULTRAMAX 400
Kodak’s very fine grain b&w film. Avedon’s choice for his pre-8x10 portraits in 120.
It could be considered the color version of the Kodak’s ISO 400 color negative film-Tri-X.
31. KODAK PORTRA 400 35MM
35. LOMOGRAPHY X PRO 200 200 ISO film with “insane” color shifts— gives a vintage look to your images.
ISO 100 color slide film— almost everyone used it at one time or another.
EPR’s tungsten balanced sister. Some used it in daylight shoots to achieve a cool “bluesy” look.
23. KODAK EKTACHROME EL
27. KODAK EKTAR 100
Fast ISO 400 version of the E6 Ektachrome line.
Professional color negative film. Lots of wedding photographers have used this.
Fast professional negative film in 35mm format. Great low light film for photographers shooting with 35mm cameras.
28. KODAK EKTACHROME EPX
32. KODAK T MAX 100
The “slightly” warm toned EPR, same ISO 64. Great for fashion shoots.
Kodak came out with their T Grain technology, which “tightens” up the grain.
24. KODAK EKTACHROME EPD Medium to fast ISO 200 EPR era film.
1.
38. ILFORD XP2 AND HP5 SINGLE USE CAMERAS These two cameras are some of the most recent disposable film cameras to debut and they come loaded with two favorite films of many photographers.
36. POLAROID 600 This was the “upgrade” from the original SX-70 instant film. Some still preferred the original.
HOW TO: POLAROID TRANSFER
Expose film. You’ll need pull-apart type film, such as Polaroid 669 (now discontinued), or Fuji FP100c (still readily available).
By Alexandra Miller I Illustrations by Kelly Kaminski
2. 3.
Develop. Pull the film from the holder.
4.
Place. Place the pulled-apart negative face down on paper (or other material). Put pressure over negative and let sit for about 20 minutes.
Pull the film apart. Wait about 10-15 seconds and quickly pull the film apart, not letting the two sides (the picture and the negative) touch. By disrupting the development processes, all of the dyes have not had a chance to move over to the print itself; much of the dyes have remained behind on the negative. It is the negative piece that will be placed on top of a new receptor to create a transfer.
5. 6.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Pour Hot Water. Pour hot water over each side of the negative/ paper sandwich. Gently peel the negative from the paper.
Dry. Allow transfer to dry, face up.
ADVERTISEMENT
SKIP COHEN IS BACK
LO MO GR AP HY
LOMOGRAPHY ENVISIONS PHOTOGRAPHY AS PLAYFUL, EXPERIMENTAL, AND AN INTEGRAL PART OF CREATIVE LIVING.
Ever since digital imaging co-opted analog film aesthetics, it seems like most everyone is living in the past—well, sort of. The past decade has seen consumer sales of film cameras decline from 19.7 million units sold in 2000, to 250,000 by 2010, and it was during this time just last year when Kodak filed for bankruptcy, selling off all its photography divisions. The public predilection for retro stylizing, and photography in general, is chiefly taking hold in the form of mobile photography with its myriad of apps. Smartphone sales grew by 58% in 2012 and the iPhone 4 is the most used “camera” today, making instant nostalgia no more than a finger tap or swipe away. However, there is at least one purist form that has managed to endure. Lomography, an analog film company and organization, celebrated its twentieth anniversary this past November, as it continues to sustain a devoted and lucrative fan-base... but how? The enigmatic success of Lomography is a lesson in brand marketing that offers a wide-view look at our relationship to photography. It all started when three Viennese students happened upon a cheap Russian camera—the Lomo LC-A Kompakt Automoat—while touring Prague. This 35mm film camera was created in 1982 by Russian optics manufacturer LOMO PLC and was inspired by the Cosina CX-1 Japanese compact viewfinder camera. No more than a year after discovering the Lomo, Matthias Fiegl, one of the students and now a founder of Lomography, began smuggling the cameras from post-Soviet Russia to sell them to his friends back home. The Lomo’s distinctive image qualities— including sharp contrast, deep saturation, light leaks, and soft vignette framing—fostered a group of niche users, and subsequently, spurred the founding of the Lomographic Society International. Akin to the spirit of Dogma95 filmmaking, the so-called “Ten Golden Rules of Lomography” establish creative limitations—notably, exclusively shooting from the hip— that paradoxically facilitate infinite creative possibilities. Because photography has become unprecedentedly both on-demand and automated, the appeal of Lomography is its incidental nature. Analog is a medium of unexpected and unique results, subject to variable environmental conditions as much as the surprises of human error. Embracing imperfections, with only a set number of exposures on a roll of film, is a welcomed alternative to the never-ending virtual photo library, which seems to oversaturate itself, with much of it going unnoticed, unseen, or quickly forgotten. And with so many images at our disposal, it’s hard not to feel it’s all been done already. In our current age of mechanical reproduction, no image is devoid of some historical reference or another, but retains distinction in the rituals of its method and tradition of its form. It’s in this way that Lomography inculcates consumer demand, by meeting a cultural demand for authenticity, despite the instantaneousness that defines image making as it’s known and practiced today. The company’s longevity is attributable to how it was a bellwether of the industry, debuting a website in 1998(!) where you could upload, tag, and share photographs, and which now has more than ten million pictures and attracts three-million monthly visits. By this time, Lomography has already been designing and manufacturing out of China and
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
By Janet Alexander
Russia for the past two years to produce the LC-A+, in addition to its own line of bulky-bodied analog film cameras. Shooting analog in a digital world is already a statement in and of itself, but to be sure it doesn’t go unnoticed, Lomography cameras are decidedly kitsch in order to suit the hyper-retro aesthetic mode of its target demographic of young emerging creative talent. It wasn’t until 2006—when most companies were migrating business to the Web—that Fiegl brought Lomography offline and began opening retail locations around the world. These are not just stores, though. In addition to selling film and cameras—and since 2003, fashion accessories—shops also host meet-ups and exhibitions that celebrate the global Lomography community. The company’s thirty-five stores, located in twenty-four different countries, sell an average of half a million cameras worldwide annually. Already equipped for when the remaining vestiges of analog photography are no more, Lomography offers a mail-in development service and has installed film-processing facilities in some of their stores. As a cultural institution, consumer product, creative mentality, and artistic community, Lomography promotes “Ten Prophecies for the Analog Future,” insisting “the future is analog.” Using a classic medium to produce images indiscernible to their time and place, Lomography envisions photography as playful, experimental, and an integral part of creative living. Subscribing to Lomography’s own “shoot first and ask questions later” approach, we’re keeping a close eye, anticipating to see what develops next.
FOCUS: FILM-“Lomography” Page 119
The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM The Fast, Wide, Prime, Redefined. First announced at Photokina 2012, the Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM is the new champion in the fast, wide, prime class. This full-frame lens raises the bar for wide-open performance–offering razor sharp details on a razor-thin focal plane at maximum aperture, with gorgeous background blur. The first lens of the Art line in the Sigma Global Vision, this lens is beautifully crafted inside and out with exceptional attention to detail. The hand feel is rocksolid, from the redesigned AF/MF switch to the wide full-time Manual Focus ring and the newly designed rubberized lens hood. Inside, the Hypersonic Motor is fast and extremely quiet, thanks to an enhanced algorithm. And the brass lens mount, FLD and SLD lens elements, Super Multi-layer Coating to reduce flare
and ghosting, and the use of Thermally Stable Composite all add up to a lens that is focused first and foremost on quality. It is designed specifically to meet the demands of today’s super high resolution cameras– and, of course, the photographers who use these and expect the utmost quality in their images. The floating inner focus system provides extremely high optical performance, even when very close focused. With a minimum focus distance of just 11.8 inches at 1:5.2 magnification, this lens excels at getting up close and personal with the subject! Nine rounded diaphragm blades make for beautiful background blur–bokeh–at all apertures, because when it comes to the most breathtaking and expressive of photographs, oftentimes what’s not in focus is just as important as what is. Truly, this lens is designed to complement the vision of the most creative and demanding photographers.
A look inside the Aizu Factory.
And each and every Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM manufactured is individually tested on the A1 MTF device at Sigma’s factory in Aizu, Japan for the utmost in quality control–ensuring every lens made is of the same soon-to-be-legendary sharpness that makes this lens so extraordinary. The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM truly redefines its category. For photographers who demand the ultimate in image quality in a wide, fast, prime, it has to be Sigma.
DARKROOM
A 19TH CENTURY ALTERNATIVE TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
W
By Sam Chapin I Photo courtesy of The Center For Alternative Photography
E LIVE IN A DIGITAL AGE. Nearly every waking m o m e n t i n vo lve s a n interaction with at least one piece of digital technology. We talk through our cell phones, we listen music on our iPods, and we look through our filmless cameras. And since everyone is looking through the same lens, it’s getting harder and harder to see things differently. According to Eric Taubman, director of The Center For Alternative Photography, “If everybody used the same tools, it’s as if everybody used watercolor or did oil painting,” This, he stated, “would be a very limited kind of experience.” Taubman and his staff teach their students how to make their own photos, not just take them. Their aim is to shift the focus from digital to a more involved and creative brand of photography. “The school started about ten years ago,” said Taubman. “We wanted to preserve some of the methods and materials that were used in the nineteenth century. We wanted to retain their beauty and also, what I would call, their hands-on or handmade aspect.”
The Center For Alternative Photography: www.capworkshops.org
And in a world that is becoming more and more digital, alternative photography schools are dwindling. “There really aren’t many institutions besides us. The George Eastman House has a few classes and The Maine Photographic Workshops also have a few, but we really are the main source for learning nineteenth century processes.” The school offers weekend workshops, which focus on one particular technique and generally cost from four hundred to five hundred dollars. Students learn not only how to develop their photos, but also how to create the necessary chemicals and solutions to develop them. “We go over sourcing the materials, where you get them from, the different suppliers, and then how to mix them—almost like a cooking class,” said Taubman. “We follow recipes and recreate the solutions; in class you have to create the chemicals and then use them to create images. You leave the
class with your own photographs done in whatever the individual process is.”
THE CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY: WORKSHOPS Albumen
Among the techniques that the school teaches are the wet plate collodion process, platinum and carbon printing, and the Daguerrotype process, which dates all the way back to 1839. The majority of the processes all rely on the same essential ingredient: silver nitrate. “[Silver Nitrate] is the basis of all film and paper going all the way back to the early days of photography. We buy that as raw silver, basically, and combine it with other chemicals to create photographic emulsions. We can create film and paper and all the basic lightsensitive materials used in all these processes, including some current day film products that we manufacture.” While the workshops focus on the technical side of photography, rather than the aesthetical—they are concerned with the photograph as an object, not the image itself—they offer a comprehensive view of these century-old techniques.
Bromoil Digital Negatives Carbon Printing Intro To Wet Plate Kallitype Platinum Printing Wet Plate Shooting—Night
INSTRUCTORS Lisa Elmaleh Dan Estabrook
“The first thing is to get a historical context of when the particular process was done, who did it, looking at samples of their work, and looking at old manuals and guides in terms of recreating the chemistry used back then.” At the school, not only can students develop film using techniques from the nineteenth century, they can also shoot as Daguerre used to. “A lot of the shooting is done in the studio, which is a north light studio,” Taubman explained. “It is the type of light and the type of studio used in the nineteenth century, and still to this day it’s one of the most desirable light sources. The windows face north, which gives a very soft and defused light. When you walk into the space, it’s really astounding. It’s a key element to our school.” Though digital cameras have become ubiquitous, Taubman is confident that interest in alternative and film photography is on the rise. “Most schools, university and college programs that used to have alternative process have closed down and opted for digital, and they’re regretting it,” said Taubman. “Film is rare, but it’s growing. The interest in it is really taking off.”
Nate Gibbons Joy Goldkind Alan Greene Jason Greenberg Motamedi Brenton Hamilton Lauren Henkin Morgan Post Robert Schaefer Joni Sternbach Ellen Susan
THE
FILM SHOOTER A
lthough chemical mixtures and rinses have been largely replaced by keystrokes and mouse clicks, film is still meaningfully relevant today, managing to be both historical and timeless all at once. With a sense of gleeful nostalgia, hopeful optimism, and determined enthusiasm, we went on a treasure hunt for photographers who shoot film on editorial or commercial assignments. While the fine art world is full of indulgent film lovers, we wanted to see if clients today accepted the constraints of film and allowed photographers to call the shot without the reassurance of seeing it on a screen. The treasure hunt felt quixotic at times—people who we thought for sure were still using film told us they had to give up on it, as clients demanded the ease and rapidity offered by digital. But we also came to see that both established and up-and-coming talents share a love for film’s tactile quality and are able to use it. After all, if a client loves your film work, the only way to get that look is to actually shoot film. As any retoucher or mobile photography app can demonstrate, the film aesthetic can be mimicked, but to digitally recreate light as it’s captured on film is virtually impossible. Just as these photographers celebrate using film in their work, so too does Resource celebrate them.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Why do you choose to shoot film in this digital age? I’m old school. For so many years I processed and printed the negatives myself, it has become ingrained. It has become a tradition—it’s a labor of love and it gives you pride in what you do. It’s a skill, and I think that’s the appeal. I certainly shoot analog for all of my personal work, which is a big focus of the work I do in general.
CHRISTIAN WITKIN www.christianwitkin.com
The other reason why I still shoot film is it has a physical component—I can file it in an archive. I’m used to that as opposed to having images backed up on a hard-drive. Pixels flowing around don’t seem real to me. You can certainly make real pictures with digital, but the end result is somewhere on an hard drive instead of a file you file in a negative box in Cabinet Three. Shooting film also allows you to slow things down. I think that’s one deficit to the digital—we have become used to this incredibly efficient way of capturing, sending, digesting and editing. The whole point A to point B journey happens within 24 hours. You shoot it and then it flies over your head and out the window again. So having something physically within your grasp is another pro. It’s wonderful to slow things down a bit to see what you’ve done. That being said, I do feel we are in an aesthetic flux right now, which has been jolted by the digital revolution. There’s no turning back, but I think people need to make more of an effort to focus on the aesthetic. If it’s not analog that’s going to make them do that at least have them realize that we need better work out there. Even though magazines and clients are getting used to having stuff produced for a fraction of what it once cost, I hope they see the pertinence of subsidizing artists’ quest for higher aesthetic. Do you still process your own film? I used to when I was younger and I didn’t have the money to pay for it, but I haven’t for years. I know one day I’m going to buy a townhouse and turn one of the bedrooms into a major darkroom. I’m going to polish those enlargers and I’m going to be so happy! What do you accomplish in your film work that you wouldn't be able to achieve with digital? It changes the way I look at my subject. It really is about holding the camera steady, taking the light meter, taking the reading and trying to shoot daylight with a medium format camera. With digital equipment, if I hold my finger down for too long, I get ten exposures in the same time frame I would just get one with film. It’s a bit jarring. It’s like I’ve been using spoons and forks for so many years to eat my food and suddenly I gotta eat with chopsticks!
Shooting film is ultimately more expensive and takes longer, so you have to be mindful of these things when you do a commercial shoot. For me it’s very much compartmentalized—I have my personal, fine art world and my commercial world, and that’s how it works. As long as I can shoot film for my personal work, I really don’t mind shooting digital. Editors allow that because I’m established and I’ve been around a bit. When I send them both analog and digital edits, they tend to go with the analog version. I think a lot of people long for the tradition, the texture of real film, the black borders. There’s nostalgia, but also the actual aesthetics of it. You see that with the popularity of apps like Instagram, which lets people add a retro look and give a fucked up kind of granular effect to their image. It’s interesting that people use digital to get an analog look, but it’s also a bit of a tragedy since more than likely we’re not going to go back to the days of analog… But as long as it’s around, you bet your ass I’m still shooting film. It’s as simple as that. What's the biggest obstacle to shooting film today? I would say it’s the time factor. Digital has spoiled just about everyone in terms of turn over and cost efficiency. People’s expectations have become the obstacle.
Still, for me to say that analog is better than digital is not fair, because if I was 25 years younger I wouldn’t really know any different. I certainly feel that analog is more real, that it’s really tangible. I can smell it, I can lick it, I can print it. I miss that with digital.
This conversation about analog vs. digital doesn’t happen so much anymore. Everyone is shooting with digital freakin’ SLRs. Every client is expecting to look over your shoulder and look at the back of the camera. The cameras have become very sophisticated and some of them have surpassed the quality of large format cameras, but believe me, it’s not the same thing. You’re still talking about pixels vs. grain.
How do you feel clients who are used to the digital workflow react to the added film costs (processing, scanning, contact sheet..)?
I’m currently working on a book, Ordinary Beauty, and it’s all negative, analog film that I’ve shot over the years. Film is not a lost art form; people are still using it. I’d like to think that it’s going to be around indefinitely.
FOCUS: FILM-“The Film Shooter” Page 125
COLLEEN DURKIN CLIENTS: Mostly editorial, although I’ve shot film for an advertorial for Casio and an Always ad via Leo Burnett. Why do you choose to shoot film? It's not about shooting with film, but being able to use the specific and special cameras I've come across. I love the images they produce. Also, film has a very real “capture that moment” feeling that digital doesn't have. Sure, you can use filters and Photoshop to simulate similar effects, but nothing can replace film's tactile quality. Although I can easily create a film "look" digitally, I love the experience of working with both techniques. For me each has its advantages. When shooting with film, I am going for a specific look I don't need a computer to help me create. How do you feel clients react to the added processing, scanning, contact sheet charges? Some clients hire me to specifically shoot with film because they like the overall look, the light leaks, the feel of the images. These costs are budgeted into the shoot just as digital file storage fees, retouching, etc.. are added into a digital shoot. I've never had much issue with it. What's the biggest obstacle to shooting film in a digital age? For me the biggest obstacle is the expense—and the sad reality that places to develop and buy film are disappearing. I'm sure film and processing will be around for a while longer (fingers crossed), but it will only become more costly to choose film over digital, which is a huge hurdle for many working photographers.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
www.colleendurkin.com
FOCUS: FILM-“The Film Shooter” Page 127
CHRISTOPH MORLINGHAUS www.morlinghaus.com
Why do you choose to still shoot film? Color negative film looks and feels much better. I can use film in my large format view cameras that allow me to exercise perspective and focus control. Because I tend to shoot in environments that are hostile to humans, film cameras stand up to those conditions when digital cameras do not. I also feel that I need an emotional relation to my equipment, and rented digital equipment can't give me that. I do not want to buy a system that costs $60,000 and still does not give me the results that I want. Film has soul. What do you accomplish with film that you wouldn't be able to achieve with digital? In addition to the above, here’s an experience I had recently: Wired Magazine commissioned me to take images of man-made caverns. Some of those places were incredibly cold and dark; I just opened the shutter and exposed for up to 20 minutes. I doubt that the results would have been as good with digital. Film makes creating beautiful images so much easier: large format film scanned looks stunning by default and does not need lots of fiddling and manipulating in post to give the image a “look.” My non-commissioned work is 100% large format film, and a lot of it gets shown in my commercial portfolio. Additionally, the sheer quality that I can achieve by using film allows me to use selected commissioned work as fine art and large exhibition prints. Film equipment allows me to shoot much more deliberately. I love very sharp images through the entire depth of field; I can close down the f-stop on my large format camera really far to f45 or f64 without noticing the effects of defraction. With digital, you’re limited to f11 or f16 before defraction becomes clearly visible. The contrast range of film is much bigger. I never worry about shadows and highlights without tonality because I know that I got all the details in my negative and can decide later how much of that information ends up in the final image. I can shoot happily into the sun and not worry about a thing. How do you feel clients react to the added cost of film? I have yet to put an estimate together where using film is actually more expensive than using professional digital equipment. Renting a medium format camera with a high-end back, lenses, computers, hard drives and a digital assistant who needs to be fed, transported and lodged, is way more expensive than all the costs that are involved with film photography. I own all the equipment that I need. Because I am totally self-sufficient, I am able to go really low on costs if I absolutely want a certain editorial job that does not have a big budget. To have my own infrastructure also allows me to work extremely fast. What's the biggest obstacle to shooting film nowadays? It’s to source the materials. The film you want might be out of stock or has been discontinued altogether. 4x5'' Fuji instant material is no longer produced, which will be a problem for me once my stock runs out. The other obstacle is the need to overcome the common prejudices against film photography as being expensive and slow.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
FOCUS: FILM-“The Film Shooter” Page 129
CHRIS DAVIS
www.chrisdavisphoto.com
CLIENT: Most of the work that I shoot film for is for architects and interior designers. It is direct client.
matter how many stops brighter. I've never run out of dynamic range with a drum scanned negative.
What makes you choose film over digital?
When I sold my Alpa and digital back a few years ago and switched back to film, I had one client say, "Thank God." She loves the look and feel of film, and didn't understand why I went to digital.
The main reason is for its look. While digital can be made to look like film, each image needs a few hours of Photoshop work to get there. And shooting film forces me to slow down and really look at the ground glass. Considering that shooting a Fujiroid takes a few minutes, I make sure everything looks perfect before pressing the shutter. With the work I do, there is also a cost advantage to shooting film. With architecture, I usually shoot four sheets of film per shot, and six to eight shots a day. The cost of everything (film, Fujiroid, developing, contacts, scanning) is either the same or less than the cost of using a digital back and a technical camera. I do occasionally shoot with a 5d and TS lenses for clients who are on a tight budget, but my framing can't be as precise as I'd like it to be without both rise/fall and L/R shift. What do you accomplish in your film work that you wouldn't be able to achieve with digital? Film enables me to capture detail in every part of the scene in one shot. If I expose for the shadows, I can still pull detail out of the highlights, no
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
What's the biggest obstacle to shooting film today? Getting through security at airports. I always ask for a hand inspection, but many TSA agents have no idea what to do with the boxes I present them. I've since started FedExing my film to the hotel, and then back to the lab. Another issue is that certain stocks and sizes of film aren't always available. I can't just walk into K&M like I used to and ask for 200 sheets of Portra 160â&#x20AC;&#x201D;I have to call ahead and make sure they have it in stock first. Other than those issues, I've found that film is a great medium in the digital age. Never have we had such fine grain film that records such an incredible dynamic range. Drum scanners are a tenth of the price they were ten years ago, and the sophistication of RAW processing has benefited film shooters tooâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;just look at the Color Right Pro plug-in which enables me to get all but the most demanding images looking how I want them to look in a few minutes.
ERNESTO GONZALEZ
www.ernestogonzalezphotography.com www.ernestogonzalezphoto.blogspot.com What was this shot for? This image is part of a series that I shot recently for an advertisement and look book for a small fashion label based in Seattle. The Art Director who hired me for the job knew my work on Polaroid, which had been published in TRACE magazine. We ran into each other and she proposed the project to me. We both thought it would be a good fit. You shoot both digital and Polaroid. What makes you choose film for some of your projects? Polaroid has unique colors and textures. And it gives me the possibility to achieve spontaneous and unexpected results with every take. I relate it to digital in terms of its immediacy, but with unique experimental qualities.
FOCUS: FILM-“The Film Shooter” Page 131
ERNESTO GONZALEZ
HOW TO: LOAD A 35MM CAMERA
By Raquel Gil I Illustrations by Kelly Kaminski
1. 2.
3.
4.
Open the camera back. Most cameras have a sliding switch located in the back or side. Locate it and slide it until the back of the camera opens.
Place film into the empty chamber. You can pull the rewind knob up for easier fit, and then push down to create a snug on the film after it’s placed into the chamber.
Pull film. Pull enough film across the back of the camera, so that the film’s front edge lines up with the film tip mark at the opposite side of the chamber.
Line up the sprockets holes onto the sprockets. There are sprockets on the top and bottom of the sprocket spindle, and there are holes on the sides of the film. Line up the sprocket holes of the film on the sprockets.
What's the biggest obstacle to shooting film in a digital age? I personally don't think there is any obstacle. Shooting analog for commercial projects is less common, but still an option. Without a monitor, the dialogue about image choices is different. The interaction among the crew is also different. But in the end, being film or digital, the job is about making beautiful images for your client.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
5.
Press whole film flat against the back of the camera, double check the film strip is well seated and close camera back. The camera mechanist should advance the film onto the first frame; however, not every camera is the same. If nothing happens after you close the camera’s back, advance the film by pressing the shutter until the number 1 appears in the frame counter.
FILM GEAR & LABS
Illustration by Mohammed Nadeemuddin
READY TO SHOOT FILM? HERE ARE A FEW PLACES WHERE YOU CAN FIND WHAT YOU’LL NEED.
“We service and repair most film cameras in-house.” -Chris Ford PIX INC., LOS ANGELES
“Our rental inventory includes view cameras from 20x24 to 4x5, Mamiya RZ67, Pentax 67, Hasselblad, and Nikons.” -John Engstrom SCHEIMPFLUG, NEW YORK
“We can special order products, such as enlargers.” -David Gremp CALUMET, CHICAGO
“We provide film upon request.” -Kip McQueen, ROOT, NEW YORK
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA “We process C-41, B&W, and E-6, and print on chromogenic paper.” -Dirk Hatch LIGHT WAVES, SAN FRANCISCO “We process C41, E6, and B&W films, and print from negatives.” -Ken THE ICON, LOS ANGELES
ARIZONA - TEMPE LAB- RENTAL/ RETAIL Tempe Camera Repair
CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES PHOTO LABS A&I Photographic & Digital Services Fotek Photo Lab Richard Photo Lab
CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet San Diego
ILLINOIS - CHICAGO
Foto Care
CSI Rentals
Print Lab
Scheimpflug
Adolph Gasser
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet Photographic
PHOTO LAB Duggal Visual Solutions
Pro Camera Rental & Supply
Calumet Oak Brook
Grand Photo Solutions
Dodd Camera
Print Space
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet
The Icon
Light Waves Imaging
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet
CALIFORNIA SANTA ANA
Samy’s
Calumet
K&M Camera
PHOTO LAB Dickerman Prints
Pix Inc. (phasing out of inventory in 2013)
PHOTO EQUIPMENT World Wide Foto
LABS D’Ore Photo Services
CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
Shulman Photo Lab
The Edge Grip
“We sell cameras, film, chemicals, and Polaroids.” -Miguel Goodbar ADORAMA, NEW YORK
“We have 35mm, Hasselblad 503 and Mamiya RZ67 Pro II Medium Format Systems, and Sinar P2 4x5.” -Tyson Smyer THE EDGE, LOS ANGELES
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet Santa Ana
FLORIDA - MIAMI
LABS Darkroom & Digital Imaging
Helix Rental
MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON EQUIPMENT RENTAL Calumet Boston
NEW YORK - NEW YORK PHOTO EQUIPMENT Adorama
ROOT [EQ]
PENNSYLVANIA PHILADELPHIA PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet Philadelphia
TEXAS – DALLAS PHOTO EQUIPMENT Dallas Camera
VIRGINIA - VIENNA
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Penn Camera Tysons Corner
WASHINGTON D.C PHOTO EQUIPMENT Penn Camera E Street
WASHINGTON – SEATTLE PHOTO EQUIPMENT Glazer’s
TEXAS – DALLAS & HOUSTON PHOTO EQUIPMENT LighTec
(retail only, not rental)
FOCUS: FILM-“Film Gear and Labs” Page 133
5
MODERN-DAY FILM CAMERAS
By Chris Gampat
Film has found a revival of sorts with our current love for all things vintage and beautiful. It reminds us of the excitement when image capturing was about taking a chance and not chimping an LCD screen. You had to think about the scene you were about to capture very carefully before advancing onto the next exposure. When it comes to film cameras, there have been venerable stalwarts that have stood the test of time and newer additions that have recently jumped on board. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a list of some of the modern film cameras that pique our interest.
>>1.
>>2.
>>3.
>>4.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
1. LEICA MP
The Leica MP represents the latest in the rangefinder tradition from this legendary German company. The 35mm film camera doesn’t bear the red dot that brands every Leica camera, giving it a discreet and stealthy look when shooting out in the streets. Complete with TTL metering, you’ll also be able to rely on the battery-operated light meter to get a better exposure for your scene. The camera does have its shortcomings though—namely, the fastest shutter speed is only 1/1000th and the flash sync speed is 1/50th. But if you’re using Sunny 16 metering the way they did back in Cartier-Bresson’s day, you may not even bother with any of this. Either way, this camera is the most premiere 35mm film rangefinder available today. Like any Leica, it comes with a hefty price tag. The MP will set you back $4,995.
Looking for a brand new medium-format SLR with a waist-level viewfinder? The Hasselblad 503CW may be the option for you. It’s a camera that many photographers lust after, and not just for its Zeiss lenses and stunning good looks. The 503CW features a TTL metering system, loads of lenses, and can accept a variety of film backs. It also uniquely shoots 6x6 square photos—a format highly sought-after by many photographers for its simplicity. The camera’s matte focusing screen will work perfectly with its split prism focusing to help you get your subject tack sharp. The camera retails for $3,460. www.hasselbladusa.com
FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI 7S
http://us.leica-camera.com
LOMOGRAPHY BELAIR
4.
HASSELBLAD 503CW
2.
Lomography has long been known for their plastic cameras and crossprocessing images. The Belair is the first original medium-format camera they’ve released in years and represents the company’s interest in stepping up its game. The Belair is designed to look like a collapsing rangefinder and even has a bellows system. It’s an aperture priority camera with two settings—F/8 and F/16—and can shoot film from ISO 50 to 1600. Though the lenses are only available in plastic, the company states that glass optics are on the way. The Belair comes in either all plastic or aluminum with leather for the more fashion-conscious among us.
5.
Fujifilm’s Instax Mini 7S is an excellent party camera and can be lots of fun to play with. It shoots business card-sized photos, which means that you can attach your card to the back of one if you also want to make an impression. The Mini 7S has exposure settings for different situations, such as cloudy, indoors, or bright and sunny. It’s easy to use and collapses down for easier storage. The white version of the camera retails for around $62.90. www.fujifilm.com
>>5.
The City Slicker edition is made entirely of plastic and retails for $249. The Jetsetter has slightly better looks and goes for $299, while the Globetrotter is a special limited edition that goes for $349. www.lomography.com
3. MAMIYA 7 II
The Mamiya 7 II has proven to be one of the longest lasting and best medium-format rangefinder cameras ever made and sports beautiful Mamiya lenses. The camera is a 6x7 rangefinder with an all-manual focus system. To aid with focusing, it has bright frame lines in the viewfinder depending on which lens you attach. The camera is very light and has a maximum shutter speed of 1/500th. Thanks to the leaf shutter, it can also sync flashes to that speed. Most of all though, this is one of the quietest cameras you’ll ever use. Sometimes you might not even know you took a photo! The Mamiya 7 II (with an 80mm f4 lens) retails for around $3,700. www.mamiyaleaf.com
FOCUS: FILM-“5 Modern-Day Film Cameras” Page 135
With the demand for film on the decline, the need for By Isaac Lopez I Photos by Robert Burley
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
THE
KODAK D-EVOLUTION AH, MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
Love it or hate it, it’s here and it’s not going away. Nobody would let it, given how easy a lot of modern technology has made our lives. If this writer wanted to, he could be writing this right now on an iPad while waiting in line at Six Flags to ride the Kingda Ka rollercoaster. Of course, that would be stupid (and unlikely—this writer is scared of rollercoasters), but the point is technology has moved at such a fast pace, thinking about it would make our heads hurt as much as riding that wretched death machi… err, rollercoaster, would. As is the case with the outside world, rapid technological advances have completely changed our photo world in an astonishing way, and in the blink of an eye. Look at how just fifteen years ago, you’d watch your favorite movie on VHS; now it’s on Blu-Ray, if you’re not streamlining it from Netflix. You’d be listening to your favorite music on a cassette in a Walkman; now all your favorite music is in your iPod. With this rapid transition from analog to digital, it’s no coincidence that the industry has massively shifted away from having film being king. These past years have been hard to observe for plenty of industry veterans, for whom most of their professional years took place during an era when shooting film wasn’t just merely an option—it was the only option.
Robert Burley: www.robertburley.com
With the demand for film on the decline, the need for factories to make film also inevitably declined. In 2005, photographer Robert Burley found out from a couple of Kodak Canada executives that the company was planning to shut down and demolish its factory in northwestern Toronto. Because of the huge role the place played in the photography industry (according to Burley, the factory produced all of Kodak’s black-andwhite film for North America) and the city of Toronto itself (the facility had been around for a century and consisted of eighteen buildings), Burley decided to photograph the demolition with his 4x5 camera. As unfortunate as he thought this was, he wasn’t pushing the panic button yet. “I thought this was, to some degree, a downsizing exercise by the Eastman Kodak company,” said Burley. “It was sad, but life would carry on… I didn’t really know the big moment I was working in at that time.”
factories to make film also inevitably declined.
Fast forward nearly two years later, when shades of what happened in Toronto were now being seen ninety-five miles to the east in Rochester, NY—the site of Kodak’s headquarters and vast manufacturing facilities, which Burley described as being “the size of a steel mill.” What started
here was Kodak’s systematic departure from the very thing that made it a household name decades ago. “They decided to have publically attended implosions of the film factories,” said Burley. “They were trying to send a message to the world that they were making a change… The building was being demolished with dynamite; there was a giant inkjet banner on the side, [which] read ‘NICE DAY FOR A REVOLUTION.’” The implosion doubled as a marketing opportunity to promote their line of inkjet printers, Kodak’s new focus. Between July and December 2007, Burley attended and shot two more implosions at the Rochester facility, and traveled to France and the Netherlands to document their respective Kodak and Polaroid factory demolitions. While Burley shot these implosions with his large-format 4x5 camera, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the crowds the implosions attracted, he was almost always the only one shooting with film.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
BIZ: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 139
Explained Burley, “Most of [the crowd] were former Kodak employees; of course they all had digital cell phones and cameras and video cams, that they were using to record what was really a very historical moment—not just in the history of photography, but I think it’s an important point in the history of Western culture and the history of technology as a whole.” The images have since been collected in Burley’s new book, Disappearance of Darkness: Photography at the End of the Analog Era. Although film is fading (faster than Burley or anyone, for that matter, expected) from the mainstream, Burley explains that not using film regularly does not make one any less of a photographer. In fact, when someone from a digital background does decide to use film, the results are very, very different—in a good way.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
“I’m sure at some point, at the beginning of the 1900s, people spent a lot of time comparing cars to horses and buggies,” said Burley, who himself is doing a project involving digital media. “It’s a different medium… they're very different things.” As an Associate Professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University, Burley said, “What I’ve noticed with my students,” who he points out tend to be in their early 20s, thus having little, if any, film knowledge, “is that they find physical photography—the darkroom, chemically based processes—exotic and really magical. They are starting to approach the use of those materials in a different way. They’re being much more experimental. They love the fact that there’s no control, no ‘E’ button on film. Often you make pictures you wouldn’t have made if you weren’t using those materials… That’s what they really love.”
DICK TEES LIMITED EDITION
$30
available at the resourcemagonline.com store
retail introduces a new line of fashion for photographers. Printed on an American Apparel tri-blend t-shirt.
THE BEST
2012 OF
BY ADAM SHERWIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG NEUMAIER
????
???? BEST IN CATEGORY
O
Greg Neumaier: www.gregneumaier.com
N E C P 2 3 2 W 2 3 â&#x20AC;? W I D E S C R E E N D I S P L AY NEC continues its tradition of excellence with the P232W. The 23â&#x20AC;? 1920x1080 LED backlit display offers multiple connection options, USB hub, 4-way adjustment, as well as picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture modes. Host to awesome NEC features like Display Sync Pro (control 2 computers with one mouse and keyboard), AmbiBright (display adjusts automatically to lighting conditions), and MultiProfiler (control 5 picture modes and load ICC profiles), the affordability of the P232W makes it a great choice to meet the photo and video needs of emerging image-makers and pros alike. $569 Optional MultiSync Soundbar Pro +$65 Optional SpectraView II Color Calibration Package +$250 www.necdisplay.com
CANON POWERSHOT S110 The competition in this weight class is getting fierce, but with a solid focus on aesthetic and just the right amount of innovation, the 12MP S110 is a mighty compact with the heart of a lion. The addition of a 3” touchscreen and WI-FI sharing match nicely with Canon’s proven high-sensitivity CMOS sensor and DIGIC 5 processor. Throw in a sweet 24mm F2.0 5x zoom and ISO up to 12,800 and, whether you’re shooting video or stills, you’ve got a camera that truly fits in your pocket while meeting the creative needs of pros and enthusiasts—all that for a magnificent price. $449.99 www.usa.canon.com
BEST
C O M PA C T S
OF
2012
NIKON COOLPIX S800C
O LY M P U S T O U G H T G - 1 I H S
The 16MP 800C offers all the fun of smartphone shooting without the phone. It has a 10x zoom, WI-FI, GPS, Bluetooth and, with almost a third of its 2GB internal memory dedicated to storing and using Android OS apps, the 800C means users can shoot, edit and share stills and HD video right from their camera.
The TG-1 is waterproof, shockproof, crushproof and freezeproof. Whether you’re shooting stills or video, this 12MP compact has a fast F2.0 lens for awesome results under the harshest conditions.
$346.95 www.imaging.nikon.com
$399.99 www.getolympus.com
DURABILITY
SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-RX100
PA N A S O N I C L U M I X D M C - S Z 5
The RX100 ushers in a new era in compact cameras by offering a ½.3” 20MP Exmor CMOS sensor powered by Sony’s BIONZ processor, and a super sharp F1.8 3.6x Carl Zeiss zoom lens that delivers awesome low-light performance.
Slim, compact and full of features, the SZ5 has a 14MP CCD, 10x Leica 25-250mm stabilized zoom, and WIFI capabilities so you can share directly to your social networks, a smartphone or your computer via an internal router that can create its very own hotspot.
$648 www.store.sony.com
$159.95 www.panasonic.net/avc/lumix
O
PA N A S O N I C L U M I X DMC-GH3 Aimed at serious enthusiasts looking for “DSLR-like” features and quality in a smaller size, the GH3 actually ended up being one of the big surprises this year for video professionals. At 16MP, the same resolution as the previous GH2 model, the GH3 introduces a stunning OLED monitor and live viewfinder, a new Live MOS sensor powered by a 3-core Venus 7 processor and WI-FI sharing—all great features to keep the interest of stills shooters. Video pros are enthralled by features like time-code support, external mic and headphone jacks, auto slow motion features, HDMI output for external recording and monitoring, as well as lighting fast bit-rates that are topped only by much more expensive HDSLR models. Body Only - $1,298 www.panasonic.com/LUMIX
BEST
LARGE SENSOR
OF
2012
SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-RX1
LEICA-S
2012 could very well become known as the year of Sony. The RX-1 turned many heads in 2012 with its full-frame 24MP CMOS sensor powered by Sony’s BIONZ processor and fixed F2.0 35mm Zeiss lens. The RX1 captures JPEG and RAW, as well as full HD 1080p video at 24 and 60fps.
Built on the foundation of Leica’s quest for excellence, the 37.5MP Leica-S is a professional medium format digital camera offering some of the most advanced features of any camera in its class, while maintaining the simple yet classic and design Leica is recognized for worldwide. Enough said.
$2,798
www.store.sony.com
$21,950 www.s.leica-camera.com
O
S O N Y A L P H A S LT- A 9 9 V
CANON EOS-1DX
The A99 is Sony’s new flagship, full-frame 35mm 24MP DSLR. The translucent mirror technology and dual AF system mean lighting-fast capture speeds and real-time focus adjustments since the subject is constantly being monitored. High ISO and built-in SteadyShot deliver amazing low-light performance for capturing incredible stills and full HD 1920x1080 60p video with audio input and headphone monitoring.
Designed for Pro shooters, Canon’s new 1Dx is everything you’ve come to expect and more. The 18MP full-frame CMOS sensor is powered by dual DIGIC 5+ processors for a blazing fast 12fps. Not to mention 61-point AF with dedicated DIGIC 4 processor and 14-bit processing, ensuring great results with low noise at high ISO settings. Whether you’re shooting stills or capturing HD video, the 1Dx ensures professional results at every turn.
Body only - $2,798 www.store.sony.com
$6,799.00 (Body Only) www.usa.canon.com
PERFORMANCE
P E N TA X Q 1 0 The Q10 may not be much larger than a deck of cards but it offers the control of a DSLR with traditional program shooting modes and a broad range of Pentax’s Q-mount lenses. Upgrades to the ½.3” 12.4MP backlit CMOS sensor and AF functions mean better overall performance and quality. Throw in 1080p HD video at 30fps, a multitude of in-camera effects and filters, shake reduction and a pop-up flash and you’ve got a tiny camera that is fun and effective for capturing great images.
Q10 w/ 5-15mm lens - $599.95 www.pentaximaging.com
P E N TA X K 5 I I Pentax continues to build its arsenal of quality digital cameras with several top-notch releases in 2012. Pentax’s new flagship K5 II and K5 IIs (no anti-aliasing filter) offer a weather sealed magnesium alloy body with a 16MP APS-C CMOS sensor powered by Pentax’s second generation Real Image Engine. Paired with a new 11-point SAFOX X AF sensor, body-based shake reduction and an ISO range of 100-12,800 (expandable to 51,200) the K5 II is an awesome low-light performer with some decent video options including 1080p HD, an external mic jack and HDMI output. K5 II Body Only $1,199.95 (+$100 for S-body) K5 II w/ 18-55mm lens $1,349.95 www.pentaximaging.com
SIGMA DP1/DP2 MERRILL Sigma has created something truly beautiful with their DP1/2 Merrill compacts. Boasting the mind-blowing 48MP Foveon X3 Direct Image Sensor, these cameras feature high-end fixed F2.8 19mm (28mm equivalent) and F2.8 30mm (45mm equivalent) lenses respectively. Powered by dual TRUE II processors, the 3-layer RGB Foveon X3 sensor produces vibrant, almost 3D-like results with super-rich color. A redesign of the DP body and a simplified layout of the controls create a beautiful low-profile aesthetic that is matched only by the quality of the images it produces. DP 1 Merrill with fixed F2.8 19mm - $999.99 (left) DP 2 Merrill with fixed F2.8 30mm - $999.99 (right) www.sigmaphoto.com
FUJIFILM X-E1 AND XF1 Crafted with painstaking attention to detail, these two new additions to Fuji’s X-series are nothing short of spectacular. The X-E1, a scaled down version of Fuji’s X-Pro1, houses the same 16MP X-Trans CMOS sensor and carries the same Fujinon XF lens mount. It lacks the X-Pro’s advanced viewfinder but trumps its big brother with a smaller frame, a superior 2.36M OLED EVF, built-in pop-up flash, and a 2.5mm input for an external mic for pro grade audio when shooting your full 1080p HD video. The smaller XF1 is an elegant compact with a 12MP EXR CMOS sensor, a retractable Fujinon f/1.8 4x 24105mm equivalent zoom lens with AF and manual focus options, aluminum body, and 3.0" Premium Clear LCD. The XF1 comes in 3 different faux leather finishes and a customizable E-Fn button for access to its many creative functions, making it the perfect accessory for any photographer. X-E1 Body Only - $995.99 (below) X-E1 with 18-55mm lens - $1,399.99 X-F1 - $499.99 (right) www.fujifilm.com
BEST
MIRRORLESS
OF
2012
SONY ALPHA NEX-5R
O LY M P U S O M - D E - M 5
Another awesome release from Sony, the NEX-5R has a 16MP APS-C HD sensor, 3” tilt-able touchscreen control, offers 1080 HD 60i, 60p and 24p video, WI-FI sharing, mobile apps, and low-light performance up to ISO 25,6000. Sold as a kit with 18-55 E-mount lens.
It may look old school, but this classically designed Olympus 4/3’s camera is a far cry from the camera it is modeled after. The OM-D has a 16MP Live MOS sensor, 3” tilting OLED monitor, eye-level EVF and one of the fastest AF systems available.
$748 www.store.sony.com
$999.99 www.getolympus.com
SAMSUNG NX1000
NIKON 1 V2
The NX1000 expands Samsung’s line of WI-FI cameras while offering users a brand-new pro-grade 20MP APS-C CMOS sensor that matches the quality of more expensive DSLR’s. It has a top shutter speed of 1/4000s and super fast AF, giving users an incredibly affordable option for a large sensor compact with tons of features.
Nikon continues to improve their 1-series camera with a redesigned grip, lighting-fast Hybrid AF, a built-in pop-up flash, and an enhanced motion snapshot feature—all built around a new 14MP CX super high-speed CMOS sensor and EXPEED 3A processing engine.
$499.99 www.samsung.com/us
FUNCTIONALITY
O
$896.95 with 10-30mm F3.5-4.6 Nikkor VR Lens www.imaging.nikon.com
B R O N C O L O R M O V E 1 2 0 0 L P O W E R PA C K Beautifully designed and built for photographers on the go, the MOVE 1200L weighs in at just under 14lbs, offers full asymmetry and a control range of 9 stops across its two head inputs. broncolorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patented ECTC technology means consistent and stable color, while the lithium battery promises 4,000 recharging cycles with flash times as low as 1/20,000s. Standard are a trolley backpack, weatherproof soft case, and the 8 durable bumpers to guard against everyday wear. The clincher? The MOVE 1200L can double as a power source for continuous lighting with MobilLED heads (sold separately). $4,995 (available 2nd quarter 2013) www.bronimaging.com
BEST
LIGHTING GEAR
OF
PROFOTO B4 PRO 1000 AIR An incredible top flash duration of 1/25,000 means up to 30 flashes per second. Includes fast recycle, Profotoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dependability, and an unprecedented selection of light shaping tools at your disposal and integrated Air Remote and sync. $7,899 www.profoto.com/us
SEKONIC L478D/DR LITEMASTER PRO The first light meter of its kind, the L478 offers touchscreen capabilities in addition to measurements for flash, incident and reflected readings for still, HD video and cinematic applications. The DR model also offers integrated use with wireless technology found in Pocket Wizards ControlTL technology. L478DR - $469 L478D - $389 www.sekonic.com
2012
EXPOIMAGING ROGUE MASTER LIGHTING KIT If you shoot with speed lights, you need this kit. On or off camera, the Rogue offers a complete collection of light modifiers for multiple speed lights, giving you incredible creative options and control. $199.95 www.expoimaging.com
POCKET WIZARD PLUS III The best just got betterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;not to mention cheaper. The PW Plus III covers more distance with long range and repeater modes, goes from 4 to 32 channels, and triggers up to 4 separate flashes or bodies in 4 different zones. Making sure you control your flash, and not the flash from the photographer in the next studio (or the same stadium). $149 www.plusiii.pocketwizard.com
O
GURA GEAR B ATA F L A E 2 6 L Like Gura Gear’s previous backpack, the Kiboko, it’s tough as nails and light as a feather but they still found a way to improve it. The innovative butterfly opening also fully opens now for easy loading and unloading. 18L - $349.00 26L - $399.99 / 32L $449.00 www.guragear.com
DOMKE NEXT G E N E R AT I O N DOMKE introduces 4 new collections and updated classics featuring GearProtex dividers and PocketFlex pockets, pouches and accessories for total customization. Shown is the new Ledger bag from the Journalist Series of DOMKE’s Next Generation. Available late Q1 Price: TBD www.domkephoto.com
BEST
LOWEPRO ROVER P R O 4 5 L AW
BAGS
OF
2012
The Rover Pro 45L is large, lightweight backpack with an incredible trampoline-style suspension system for awesome support and lots of room to carry gear and personal items. $329.99 www.lowepro.com
ACME MADE M O N T G O M E RY S T. COLLECTION
K ATA P R O - L I G H T R E VO LV E R 8
A great line of bags designed for the urban photographer or traveler. Montgomery St. offers 4 styles including backpack, courier street kit and street case bags to carry smaller DSLR, compact systems and personal items. Backpack – $99.99 Courier – $79.99 Street Kit – $59.99 Street Case – $29.99 www.acmemade.com
O
STYLE
Aptly named the Revolver, the innovative design of the interior spinning pocket gives photographers quick access to 4 additional lenses through the side of the bag without taking it off. $249.99 www.kata-bags.us
LOWEL BLENDER 3 LIGHT KIT The Lowel Blender, originally released in 2009, offered a cost effective and lightweight solution for video shooters caught in tough lighting conditions when shooting with mixed sources. The 2012 release of the 3-light kit means you can easily shift each of the 3 lights individually between 3,000K and 5,000K. With the twist of a knob, you can now create balanced light in almost any shooting situation. This super portable 17lb kit comes in a slim bag with stands included, making it one of the most portable, yet effective, travel light kits available. $1,466.50 www.lowel.com
BEST
VIDEO GEAR
OF
I N D U R O H I - H AT
2012
T E N B A R O A D I E I I H D S L R / V I D E O B A C K PA C K
A staple in the video and cine industries, Hi-Hats had remained relatively unchanged until recently. Induro’s design is only 4.6lbs but can hold up to 220lbs; with its expandable legs it goes from just under 4ft. to over 11ft. It also has pivoting feet and lots of mountings options.
Developed by Tenba with help from video and film pros, the Roadie II has lots of room for HDSLR to medium sized video cameras. It has a ton of gear-specific storage for quick access to mics, headphones, monopod and up to a 17” laptop.
$279
$299.95 www.tenba.com
www.indurogear.com
O
EDELKRONE SLIDER PLUS Adding production value to our video is key, but the extra gear can weigh you down. Enter SliderPlus+, an innovative patent-pending design that is only 2ft. long, can fit in your backpack and gives you 1.7ft of travel distance for your camera. $499.99 www.edelkrone.com
O
B O W E N S L I M E L I T E M O S A I C L E D PA N E L At roughly 12”x12” the MOSAIC panel is daylight balanced, puts out 4200Lux at 1m and is dimmable from 100-0%. Anton Bauer battery mount and RJ45 DMX in/out come standard, and the output display can be viewed in f-stops. 2-4 panel-mounting kits are available for creating larger sources. $959.95 www.limelite.uk.com
M A N F R O T T O K LY P Another incredibly well thought-out gadget to improve your smartphone photo/video experience, the KLYP is an iPhone 4/4s case specially designed to stay on at all times for protection and help steady your iPhone while shooting. The KLYP shown includes a clip-on pocket tripod; but even without it, the KLYP can mount to a tripod or other support via a standard ¼” thread. The clip-on hot shoe allows for the addition of one of Manfrotto’s two pocket-sized LED lights, which can be mounted to face forward or backward. (Available soon for the iPhone 5) $129.99 - As shown, other kits available www.manfrotto.us/klyp
JOBY Grip-Tight Mount a n d G o r i l l a P o d S ta n d The best products are sometimes the most simple. Enter the Grip-Tight mount from JOBY. Simply put, there are few smartphone mounts that offer the diverse creative opportunities and stability of the Grip-Tight—especially when you pair it with the Gorilla Pod stand (shown) or the Micro Stand (not shown). The Grip-Tight adjusts to fit most popular smartphones as well as almost any tripod. When you’re done, just fold it up and put it in your pocket! Grip-Tight Mount Only - $19.95 With Gorilla Pod or Micro Stand - $29.95 www.joby.com
BEST
TRIPODS, GRIP & STRAPS
OF
J O B Y U LT R A F I T S L I N G S T R A P
M E F O T O T R A N S F U N C T I O N A L T R AV E L T R I P O D
The strap has an innovative and ergonomic design, which makes it extremely comfortable. Lock the camera close to your body in the cinched position for extra protection. Unlock the strap and bring the camera up quickly with a simple fluid movement. A women’s version is available with special tailoring for the female form. $49.99
www.joby.com
2012
O
K U P O H A N D Y S TA N D
Who doesn’t like an awesome 2-for-1 deal? This MEFOTO tripod features a quick release Q-series ball-head and folds up to a mere 15.4” (but still opens up to 61.6”). Remove the center column and one of the legs, and you have a 64” monopod, making it the perfect travel companion for compact and smaller DSLR cameras. $229 www.benrousa.com
TETHER-TOOLS LOOK LOCK SYSTEM
If keeping your travel kit light and compact is a must, the Kupo Handy Stand is a clear choice. At just 2.4lbs, it closes to a mere 20”which means it can fit in larger backpacks and suitcases. The 7’3” max heights makes it an effective tool for any photographer using speed-lights or mono-lights for location studio-style work.
T h e L o o k L o c k S y ste m a l lo w s yo u to m o u n t your smartphone, up to 3” wide, above your lens, or on your camera’s hot-shoe, via an articulating arm. It can help keep kids and pets entertained during shoots, take awesome POV videos or be used as a small teleprompter when shooting video.
$50 www.kupogrip.com
7” - $74.95 11” - $79.95 www.tethertools.com
USEFULNESS
MANFROTTO VIRTUAL REALITY A N D PA N H E A D While it may not seem like much to some and much too complicated for others, this VR Pan Head is a true feat of industrial design. Used specifically for shooting sequential, constant-angle shots around a single axis in both portrait and landscape positions. Smooth, accurate and guided by a system of horizontal and vertical plates, each movement is perfectly measured by the engraved index rules on each plate. $578 www.manfrotto.us
BEST
GADGETS
OF
2012
GITZO SERIES 5 CARBON 6X GIANT TRIPOD Like every Gitzo tripod before it, the new Series 5 is beautiful and lightweight. At around 7.5lbs, it strikes the perfect balance between support and comfortable travel weight. The tripod has a 55lb load capacity, so you can bring your large DSLR with up to a 800mm lens. While it has no center column, the Series 5 Giant has a maximum height of 8.5ft, but, when closed, is just 2ft in length. It also features a third ultra-low leg spread for getting closer to the ground then ever before with a minimum height of about 6.5â&#x20AC;?. The Series 5 carbon is available in 3 different sizes.
Giant 6-section - $1,499.89 Long 4-section - $1,199.90 Standard 3-section - $811.13 www.gitzo.us
BEST
COMPUTER GOODIES
OF
2012
TOUGHTECH DUO 3SR
EPSON R3000 IJ PRINTER
ONONE PPS 7 PREMIUM
CRU-Dataport’s 3SR offers fast USB 3.0 secure RAID storage with mirrored dual notebook drives up to 750GB. FW800 BUS powered model available. 750GB USB3.0 - $539.00 / FW800 - $559.00 www.wiebetech.com
Offers wireless printing of beautiful color and B&W prints up to 13” wide. It uses 9 K3 inks and includes a dedicated CD/DVD printing tray and updated control panel.
A suite of useful PS plug-ins or standalone software for masking, adjustments, resizing images and more!
$599.99 www.epson.com
$299.95 www.ononesoftware.com
X-RITE COLOR MUNKI SMILE
C I N T I Q 2 4 H D T O U C H D I S P L AY
I L F O R D P R E S T I G E PA P E R S
Aimed at photo enthusiasts, the Color Munki Smile makes color managing easy by taking care of everything with the simple click of a button.
Wacom’s multi-touch interactive pen display has amazing color accuracy, a ton of customization options and some of the most advanced tools available on the market.
Our inkjet paper of choice when it comes to reproducing the look and feel traditional photographic prints.
$89
$2,499
www.xritephoto.com
EYE-FI PRO X2 16GB SD
www.wacom.com
PHASE ONE C1 PRO V7.0
Various Sizing and Pricing Available www.futurenow.ilford.com/
APPLE 21.5” AND 27” IMAC
With embedded WIFI, the Pro X2 Eye-Fi cards offer a ton of options for fast social network sharing and uploading of your photos and videos to smart devices and computers.
Our favorite RAW conversion software just got better with new cataloging features and overall improvements to already outstanding file adjustment tools.
The updated iMac features a new super thin design with available memory and storage upgrades to help photo and video pros keep up with ever-increasing workflow demands.
$99.99
$299
Starting at $1,299 www.apple.com
www.eye.fi
www.phaseone.com
BEST
WEBSITES/ APPS
OF EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES
2012
IPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY APPS
PHOTORESOURCEHUB.COM
C A M E R A AW E S O M E
Industry icon, Skip Cohen, helps you stay in touch with top photographers and leading manufacturers and keeps a constant flow of information and education coming your way.
Compose, shoot, edit and share. Camera Awesome has great options for all of these features. FREE
THEPHOBLOGRAPHER.COM
CAMERA +
The crew at Phoblographer brings you daily tech reviews, technical how to, and info on where to find the best photo stuff on the Internet.
Advanced options for all your iPhonetography needs. Camera + also offers sync between all your iCloud enabled devices. $0.99
C R E AT I V E L I V E . C O M
H I P S TA M AT I C
creativeLIVE provides free streaming video classes ranging from business management to lighting techniques, with HD downloads available for viewing later.
Consistently one of our faves, this app makes everything just a little bit more hip! Shooting, sharing and now lots of cool products like Hipstaprints! $0.99
PHOTOFOCUS.COM
KITCAM
Run by photo legend Scott Bourne, Photo Focus provides daily contests, tips, tricks and general information about the photo industry from an insider’s perspective.
Full-featured camera app for adding awesome effects to your iPhone photos and videos. $1.99
INSPIRATIONAL WEBSITES
IPAD PHOTOGRAPHY APPS
FSTOPPERS.COM
MORPHOLIO
The team at Fstoppers never fails to impress with their daily selection of news, reviews, and industry-related videos.
A portfolio app for any type image based content, Morpholio allows users to create and mange collections while getting valuable feedback from community members. FREE
F E AT U R E S H O O T. C O M
T I F F E N P H O T O U LT R A D F X
Curated by Alison Zavos, Featureshoot highlights outstanding work from emerging talent and pros alike. Started in 2008, the site now archives works from over 2000 photographers.
By far one of the most beautiful and feature rich apps with 934 presets for manipulating and editing images from your iPad photo library. $4.99
FLAKPHOTO.COM
PHOTOSHOP EXPRESS
Wisconsin-based Andy Adams is recognized as one of the leading voices in contemporary photography in America. His site features the work of some of the best photographers and photography projects in the world.
This is an easy choice from the industry leader in photo manipulation. PS Express offers a beautiful interface and a ton of options and in-app add-ons. FREE
PHLEARN.COM
500PX
Phlearn provides inspiring how-to videos on some of today’s most advanced techniques to help you improve your photography.
A community based sharing app for professional and emerging photographers in an easy to view timeline. FREE
ASSISTING
AVEDON “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” Richard Avedon (1923-2004)
Avedon worked with over 200 assistants during the course of his 60-years long career. We highlighted a few but here are few more: RUEDI HOFFMAN MICHAEL JANSSON D AV I D L I I T S C H WA G E R M A R C R OYC E T I M WA L K E R LAURA WILSON
For sixty years, Richard Avedon contributed to, challenged, and changed the way America (and the rest of the world) perceived fashion and beauty. Mostly shot in black-and-white, his deceptively simple photographs took on the energy of the model, the photographer, and the era. His unique vision, merciless pursuit of his craft, and dogged determination to communicate his take on what was of the time transcended the pages of fashion magazines. Avedon later challenged himself and perceptions of his work by taking on a wide-ranging series of portraits that sat in direct contrast to, yet complemented, the dramatic fashion photography that had made him a household name. With his portraits, he was able to comment on subject matters that had more gravitas than the usual fashion story or advertising assignment—inherent in work from his civil rights involvement to his anti-war photographs of the Chicago Seven, or from his photographs of hard-luck American Westerners to jarring portraits of his terminally ill father. His personal body of work, now often found in museums, served as a catalyst for discussion regarding photography’s role in contemporary art. Richard Avedon was born on May 15, 1923 in New York City, surrounded by fashion. His father was the proprietor of the dress retailer Avedon’s Fifth Avenue, while his mother’s family owned a dress manufacturing company. At a young age, Avedon covered his bedroom walls with tear sheets from fashion magazines. In 1942, he dropped out of Columbia University where he was studying philosophy to join the Merchant Marines; one of his tasks there was to shoot ID pictures for thousands of sailors. Following his stint with the Marines, Avedon studied under Alexey Brodovitch, Harper’s Bazaar’s legendary art director, and joined the magazine in 1946. Avedon brought his unique vision and American sensibilities to fashion. Inspired by street scenes like those of Henri Cartier-Bresson, he placed his models in cafes, in front of run-down buildings, or on the street: the models’ glamorous and striking appearances provided a direct contrast to the everyday scenes they dwarfed. This mix of high and low was revolutionary; some readers were aghast, but many were entranced. Avedon left Harper’s Bazaar in 1966 to follow Diana Vreeland to Vogue, where he acted as chief photographer for twenty years. In 1988, Anna Wintour became Editor-in-Chief and reportedly had Avedon audition to keep his position; following a “failed” audition, Avedon opted not to reshoot or renew his contract. Tina Brown soon hired him to become The New Yorker’s first staff photographer, saying the supremely talented Avedon could “do anything he wants” for the magazine. Anyone who has ever worked with Avedon, or “Dick” as they most likely called him, mentions his energetic pace and his ability to keep up—an avid reader and theatre-goer, Avedon was relentless not only about his work, but also in his absorption of the happenings and culture of the time. His uncanny ability to put his subjects at ease, while expertly directing them in order to achieve his precise vision, is also often mentioned. For more on the famed photographer, read on these real-life behind-the-scene stories from former Avedon’s assistants.
EARL STEINBICKER
What’s one of the most valuable lessons you picked up while assisting Avedon? I think the most outstanding thing about him is not his ability in the darkroom but his ability to extract things from people—to manipulate them, in a
way—to get the pictures that he wants. He doesn’t take a picture of something that already exists. He gets in his mind what he wants from someone and he directs them.
How did assisting Avedon affect your personal view on photography? The importance of making money at it. You can’t just be an artist. You have to pay rent, you have to pay studios, you have to pay assistants, and to do that it is very important to be a great commercial photographer, which he was and he didn’t look down on. He really put his heart and soul into doing ads. He managed to have both art and commercial photography, and it didn’t bother him jumping from one to another. We could do three ad jobs during the day and in the evening do one of his great portraits. He was able to move back and forth between those two worlds.
*Dates of employ.
What made you want to work with Avedon? I was an amateur photographer in high school and I took pictures for the school paper. I decided when I was 17 that I wanted to make it my life’s work; I went to the library and I studied all the magazines they had to see whose works I liked best—and who was in New York, because that’s where I wanted to live. I contacted ten studios, offering to be their assistant and to work cheap. Three of them answered; one of them was Avedon. We met on a weekend and right then we knew we would work together. This was in April or May of 1952; the job was to begin in September, because he was going away for the summer to shoot the Paris collections.
Interviews have been edited for clarity and space purposes.
1952–1956* AND 1959–1965*
Explain the different tasks you had to do. When you first began, you were a handy man. You kept the dark room tidy and kept everything in shape. When you graduated to being on a sitting, you loaded the cameras, handed them to him and took the sheet film holders out of the camera. You also got to do the lighting—how to light is what I consider the best thing I ever learned from him. Floodlights were heavy! You had to be pretty strong to hold them. When strobe became more common, we used a strobe. It was handheld; you painted the subject with light as the subject and Dick moved. You had to move with them to make sure he had just the right highlights. You would eventually be trusted with developing film. Most of his work was B&W and you had to develop the film perfectly and have just the right amount of contrast and density. The numbering labels I did were one of my earliest jobs. He didn’t shoot an awful lot of color, except for commercial work. It was later that we got into processing our own color. In the early ‘60s, I heard about an automatic developing machine and I talked him into buying one.
take pictures while he was putting these ladies in position because he wanted to get their big fat asses—which we got, and he put in the book.
Could you describe what Avedon was like as a person? I had an unusually close relationship with him. The very first day that we met, he asked that I always call him Dick, never Mr. Avedon, and there were only a few people he ever did that to… He was a terrible driver; you would cringe riding with him, so I drove him around a lot and did a lot of his personal stuff. Whenever we traveled, we always stayed in the same hotel and dined together, except in towns where he had friends. He could also be very distant to some. He could explode in anger if someone was doing something wrong. If you did anything wrong, there was an instant firing—you had to be on your toes all the time.
Who were some of the celebrities that you met throughout your time there? One of my favorites
www.assistingavedon.typepad.com www.lifeslittleadventures.typepad.com
was Marilyn Monroe. I was working a fan blowing her hair around; at the end of the sitting she asked me if she could write an autograph for me. I gave her a mounting board and she wrote in the corner, “To Earl. With love, Marilyn Monroe.” Then I made a print for myself of the picture and laminated that onto it. Dick put a lot of efforts into his book Nothing Personal, and I worked on nearly ever y picture. We shot George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi party, down in Virginia. We did a picture of them at their headquarters, with storm troopers giving a Hitler salute. On the same day we shot them, we went up to Washington to photograph the Daughters of the American Revolution. Dick whispered to me that I should pretend to be adjusting the camera but take pictures while he was putting them in position because he wanted to get the big fat asses of these ladies—which we got, and he put in the book.
Do you have any anecdote you want to share?
For his book Nothing Personal, we shot George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi party, down in Virginia. We did a picture of them at their headquarters, with storm troopers giving a Hitler salute. On the same day we shot them, we went to Washington to photograph the Daughters of the American Revolution. Dick whispered to me that I should pretend to be adjusting the camera but actually
Tell us about your personal career. In late 1965, I got together with another ex-Avedon assistant, Jim Houghton, and we formed our studio. We shot big accounts; we traveled around the world for Pan Am, we did a lot of work for Esquire magazine, most of our commercial work was for people like Coca Cola, Revlon and Clairol. It was all stuff that was one level below Dick’s… By the end of 1979, a little friction was developing between us. I had written a whole bunch of travel books and I wanted to become a travel writer. Since travel guides almost don’t exist anymore, I’m now working with apps. I also started in 2009 a blog about my time with Avedon. I already had my personal blog, which was getting hundreds of hits a day and was designed to sell my travel apps. So I decided to do my Avedon book also as an app. I proposed it to the Avedon Foundation and they’ve opened up all their files for me and given me permission to use his photos.
1961–1962*
ALEN MACWEENEY www.alenmacweeney.com
What it was that made you want to work with Avedon in the first place? I was a freelance photographer and shot for the Irish Times. I saw his book, Observations, and his photographs in Harper’s Bazaar, and I thought he was a wonderful photographer—much, much more refined than everybody else. Avedon’s photography was full of life and exuberance, and his fashion photography conveys that. His best work, to my mind, was done in the period of 1956 to about ’62, before I came. He became a different personality when he started doing the portraits with his large camera—but those are all matters of opinion.
What was it like to assist Avedon?
We worked seven days a week and usually most nights until eleven, sometimes later. I stayed in his apartment, at least for the first month until I had settled somewhere where he’d never heard of—Avenue B and 13th Street! I had a very close relationship with him over time; I’d go over to his house, select pictures with him, we talked about photography... We would start at nine (he was much more particular about time than I was) to get the studio ready for whatever was coming in—it might be the Revlon “Fire and Ice” campaign, which he had invented with the copywriter, Kitty D’Alessio. Revlon was a nightmare because the first take was always rejected, every time. A lot of the fashion editors like Polly Mellen would work as freelance stylists on ads that he would do. Otherwise, a lot of the work was editorial. We would have the ad job done at 12 or 12:30; then the background paper would be torn down (most of the time it was just white paper background). When a person came in for a portrait, he would keep the person busy, having a conversation with them, getting them off the subject of themselves while he was flattering them and taking the photograph. Then we might break for lunch, and if the person was a celebrity or someone he wanted to talk with, we would all have lunch together in the kitchen area, which had a big table covered in oilcloth. Lunch would be brought in, sandwiches, whatever it was, not champagne and wine. Then we would go on to another project, like an editorial shoot for Bazaar, which we booked from two to six, but which might go on to eight. Then I would have to process the film, which I didn’t want to do. I didn’t like being in the darkroom; I wanted to assist and steal whatever I could from him on how he managed and handled subjects, because that’s really the thing that mattered most. The dressing room was small and the studio was very unattractive. It was just a space. There were these very big strobes that would make a lot of noise and were very powerful, and Avedon had just two Rolleiflex cameras most of the time (he’d wipe the lenses with his fingers!). He didn’t really know that much about lighting. He knew what he liked when it was done for him and he identified the quality he saw in one picture, but he was very alert to what was going on even though he pretended not to. He was astute and very careful to keep the studio in a competitive frame so that all people were trying to do whatever Dick wanted, there was a rivalry to compete for his favor, very much so. We were very alert; there were no mistakes. Everything was too crucial in his mind, and that came down us and we felt the same way.
"WE WORKED SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND USUALLY MOST NIGHTS UNTIL ELEVEN, SOMETIMES LATER."
Bob Bishop, his retoucher, was very crucial to the way Avedon’s pictures looked and how they reproduced, as was his lighting. His photographs printed very well in magazines and newspapers, thanks to their tonal range. They had a lot of deep dark and almost bright white and then a large jump into the next tonal range. It’s hard to describe but when you see one of his photographs, you can see why they reproduce well in almost anything. Cartier-Bresson’s pictures looked kind of flat. Avedon’s never did. Penn’s looked heavy and Victorian. Avedon regarded Penn as a bastard of Victorian photographers; he was always making a dig at his competition. There was great rivalry between them. Penn got into the museums before he did; Penn said the reason was because Avedon was too commercially successful, so Avedon then set about to make sure that he got into the museums.
How would you say your time spent working with Avedon affected your view on photography? When it ended I felt almost nothing for the models who came in. I mean, some of them were beautiful but they were just totally artificial. I didn’t want anything more to do with commercial photography. I went back to Dublin and I started personal projects. I did a project about Yeats, which I started in 1965 for the poet’s centennial birthday. Matthew Broderick asked me to take pictures of his mother’s artist studio; the series turned into a 112 pages photo book, which was very successful. I then began a career in private book publishing, which goes on today. The other big project I’ve done is about the Bloomsbury Group in England, which became a book called Reflections. I did another book called Irish Walls, which came out of an assignment with Life magazine. My career has been very undersigned by me, it kind of just happened. Accidents have come to my rescue more than once.
What did you takeaway from your time working with Avedon? I did learn a lot but his direction of people was the most interesting thing. Avedon could direct ten or fifteen people and have all them doing what he wanted, even when he had no idea what he wanted them to do. He knew enough to get them to cooperate with each other, to create a scene, and was pretty amazing at doing that. I don’t think he would’ve been a good film director, but he was amazingly good at assembling a group of people in an empty studio with no help, just a white background.
How did you hear about the position? I had worked for Irving Penn, and Mr. Penn said to me, “You know, if you have the oppor tunit y you should really work for Avedon.” And so I did. I was all of sixteen and I was the lowest person on the totem pole in the studio. He was very kind to me.
What's the most memorable thing that came from having assisted Avedon? Well, out of my having assisted Dick, I find myself
What would you say his work style or method was?
About fifteen years ago, I got a telegram from Dick here in India, asking me if I could help him photograph Tibetan Lamas and the Dalai Lama. I suddenly found myself back in my position of assistant. Though he became a close friend due to my friendship with his son, he always remained someone who I consider to be a boss in a sense, though he was never formal about that position… As we walked around a sea of monks, he was discussing what the monks looked like with Sarah Giles, the editor of The New Yorker at the time. "What do you think of his nose? He has an interesting nose." I stopped him and said, "You don’t judge monks by their noses." But he took the characteristics he had chosen and put them into rather interesting photographs. His thing was the visual.
Dick had the extraordinary ability to make you feel like the most important, wonderful person in the world. He would bring a glow out of everyone. He also had an extraordinary sense of style—he had the ability to attract and bring together elements simply by his presence and to bring out of a situation this elegance, this style. He was able to create elegant images in his studio using just strobe lights and an umbrella.
He had such a wide scope of interests. I remember him reading Dostoevsky and discussing it. Whatever he was reading became part of the atmosphere of the studio. He was inclusive in whatever he did—all participated in his interests and he was interested in what everyone had to say.
in India in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery! From assisting him, I met his son, John, who introduced me to a Buddhist teacher, and I later became a Buddhist monk.
NICHOLAS VREELAND 1969* AND 1971-1974* Current Position: Tibetan Buddhist Monk in India
www.nicholasvreeland.com
1972–1977*
JEFF NIKI
Can you recall your first encounter with Avedon’s work that made you want to work with him? I grew up in the U.S. but I went to Japan to be with my mother when I was around seventeen. I was really interested in photography; I met Yokoska, a famous photographer, who asked me to work for him. He had a library filled with photo books, and I saw Avedon’s Nothing Personal, which totally blew me away... I knew my shortcomings and I knew that I had to study more. So I left Japan and came to New York; when I left, I told all my friends that I was going to New York to work for Avedon.
How did you get the job?
When I arrive, I didn’t have any money, so I stole a phone book from a phone booth, I looked under “photographers” and started from A and called people up. I worked for nothing at first and I got to know a lot of people, a lot of other assistants. One of them told me one day that there was an opening at Avedon’s studio. I called them and I got an interview. His studio manager asked me what I knew technically, and then I met Avedon. I happened to have some of the pictures that I took on my way over from California to New York, mostly landscapes. And he loved them! He asked me if they were self-portraits; I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I guess they could be. Since I didn’t have a phone at the time, I gave them a friend’s number. When I left, I was totally high that I had met him, saw his studio—the whole experience was almost enough at that point. I walked for about a block before remembering I had to call my friend to let him know they might call for me. I started telling him when he said, “Oh, the call already came, you got the job.’”
What was the most valuable lesson you learned while assisting Avedon? “Learn anything and everything that’s not photography if you want to be a good photographer.” That was his advice to me. “Forget the photography part; read books, listen to music, travel, look at things and meet people—that’s how you become a good photographer.” He was not technical. He was more into the subject matter, into what else was there. When you start, you’re interested in lighting, camera and film, but you soon realize that photography has little to do with it—whether he used this or that camera, it still came out as an Avedon picture because of the way he approached his work. He always stood very close to his subject, while an assistant would hand hold the light. You were right up against him. Elizabeth Taylor’s face would be three feet away from you. You could see all the flaws, but all I remember were her eyes—it was like, “Holy crap,” just amazing.
How did assisting Avedon affect your own work? Avedon directed his subjects like a movie director—very intensely, very strongly. It wasn’t like click, click, click, not saying anything. He gave strong directions to his subjects, and I learned that from him. Being a shy Japanese guy, that was not a natural thing for me to do. Technically I would say I learned nothing because Avedon’s technique was so simple that there was no technique. All his competitors and the wannabees were interested in what kind of special technique he used, but there was no special technique! It was all him, it was all how he directed the models. When you start to work, you’re interested in the lighting and the camera and the film, but then, soon, you realize photography has little to do with it—whether he used this camera or that camera, or this film or that film, it still came out as an Avedon picture because of the way he approached his work.
What was it like working there?
You started around eight in the morning, and you went into the darkroom first, which was in the basement. That’s where the assistants and the studio manager congregated, had our coffee, and discussed what was going to happen that day, planning for a shoot or scheduling darkroom work or preparing a book or a museum show. A normal week would be five days, but whenever there were projects—and there were always projects—six or even seven days a week were pretty normal.
I was always the last one out, because I wanted a moment to reflect on what I was seeing. When I first started working there, I was told, “This is not a school. We’re not going to sit down and teach you stuff. You keep your eyes and ears open, and that’s how you learn.” They were not going to hand it to you on a silver platter. So I used the time after everybody left to sit and think about what it was that I had gained that day. Rushing out of the studio to go hang with your friends, you lose everything. I went into his files, looked at old pictures. I used to dig up 8x10 chromes of Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Onassis... It seeps into you without you realizing it, because you can’t anyway—you’re way too young, and how could you? If you’re a museum curator, maybe you can analyze the work in an intellectual way, but as a photographer, it’s very hard to verbalize your or anybody else’s pictures. If you ask a photographer to explain his work, you’ll get a lot of BS answers. He has to come up with something because he doesn’t want to sound stupid, but he took that image because he took it, and that’s all there is to it.
Does one shoot in particular stick out?
I worked on Avedon’s portrait of his father dying of cancer. Because of the subject matter, it got a very bad rep. A lot of people said he was exploiting his father, but that wasn’t his intention. Nobody in the studio really wanted to be a part of it, but I did because I knew that it was a very personal project for him.
Which celebrities did you meet throughout your time there?
Leonard Bernstein, the conductor, was a good friend of his. One time we did a portrait of him and his family; he came in with a record and went, “Dick, you gotta listen to this, this is the most incredible piece of work I have ever heard.” This is Leonard Bernstein saying this! So we’re all listening to it, and we’re kind of like nodding our heads, until one his sons went, “Daddy, this is on the wrong speed, it’s on forty-five.” Another day, Lena Horne, a famous singer, came for a sitting. All of a sudden she started singing; the picture taking stopped, everybody in the studio sat there with his mouth open, listening to this legend singing just for us. Truman Capote showed up with his boy toy, holding a doctor’s bag, which had in it a bottle of vodka and two martini glasses! We did a Vogue shoot in L.A. for which we rented a studio for almost a month, 24/7. It was for a celebrity issue, so we shot everybody—Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty dancing together, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor... Talking about technique, Avedon always stood very, very close to his subject, while an assistant would hold the light—a lighting head and arm on one hand, and a reflector in the other. Avedon never used a stationary light, it was always fluid, it always moved around. So you’re just almost touching Avedon, you’re right up against him, and the umbrella with the light is wrapped around all of you. Elizabeth Taylor’s face would be three feet away from you. You could see all the flaws, but all I remember were her eyes, her famous eyes—it was like, “Holy crap,” just amazing!
MAYNARD SWITZER 1972–1973* www.maynardswitzer.com
Do you remember your first experience with Avedon’s work? I was in art school and I saw a series that he had done in the American Vogue. He shot a multiple page-spread in Japan with Veruschka. It was an astounding piece and the first thing of his that I remember seeing.
How did you get the position? I knew that after school I wanted to leave L.A. and come to New York. A friend of mine who was freelancing for Avedon told me that one of his full-time assistants was leaving. I called Gideon Lewis, Avedon’s studio manager, and said that I wanted to come and show him my portfolio. He asked me to just send it to them; I thought about it for a few hours and called him back (I really wanted a meeting, not just send my portfolio). He still said, “Don’t worry, we’re a pretty good judge of talent here.” I sort of let it sit overnight but the next day I called him a third time—I guess he was tired of hearing from me because he said, “Listen, we can’t guarantee you the job, but if you want to fly down here and talk to us, that’s fine.” I got on a plane the next day and flew to New York to meet him and Avedon. They had a bunch of other people they were talking to, but I got the job!
Do you remember your first experience with Avedon’s work? I was in art school and I saw a series that he had done in the American Vogue. He shot a multiple page-spread in Japan with Veruschka. It was an astounding piece and the first thing of his that I remember seeing.
other photographers. His sheer professionalism with the way he treated everybody always impressed me. He expected you to be prepared to work, and there was no BS. It was a very serious business—it was fun on the set, but it was high energy and everybody knew that they were there to work.
How did you get the position?
Could you walk us through a typical day at the studio?
What was Avedon like as a person? As big a name as he was, there was never
As soon as a shoot was over, we went right into processing the film. It went into the night, sometimes through the night: in the morning, Avedon would check all the
I knew that after school I wanted to leave L.A. and come to New York. A friend of mine who was freelancing for Avedon told me that one of his full-time assistants was leaving. I called Gideon Lewis, Avedon’s studio manager, and said that I wanted to come and show him my portfolio. He asked me to just send it to them; I thought about it for a few hours and called him back (I really wanted a meeting, not just send my portfolio). He still said, “Don’t worry, we’re a pretty good judge of talent here.” I sort of let it sit overnight but the next day I called him a third time—I guess he was tired of hearing from me because he said, “Listen, we can’t guarantee you the job, but if you want to fly down here and talk to us, that’s fine.” I got on a plane the next day and flew to New York to meet him and Avedon. They had a bunch of other people they were talking to, but I got the job!
any prima donna stuff—none of the yelling and screaming you see sometimes with
The assistants always got in early—film and contact sheets had to be ready on his desk when he came in, that was a given. Everything had to be clean and ready to go at all times. When shooting, there wasn’t massive lighting set-up to do—usually there would be only two assistants working with him, loading and unloading the film, and holding the lights. The main light was very rarely on a stand: you actually had to hold it, which was a bitch (the first time I did it, I couldn’t lift my arms above my head for two days afterwards). The flash head and umbrella, which we used all the time, were mounted on some sort of monopod. Wherever the model moved, it was very easy to move the light around with her. You got to be very good—you got to know exactly how far to be with the light to get a certain F-stop. We never took any light meter readings, and there were never any Polaroid shots either.
contact sheets and we’d have to make 60x20 proof sheets to send to the client. There were always messengers coming in for the film. When Avedon and his assistants went to shoot the Paris Collections, I stayed back in New York at the studio. The film was sent back; it had to be printed and proofed by the time they got back from Paris. I basically slept on a mattress in the studio for about two or three days.
Any anecdote you can share?
One evening, we had to do a lingerie shoot with some big model. We had a messenger come pick up the 8x10 film holders to take to the lab to process them. I got a call early the next morning that all the film was blank! Everybody went nuts. We wondered what had happened. Turned out that the messenger had glimpsed behind a curtain and seen the girl half naked. He wanted to see what the pictures looked like, so he opened up all the holders and of course fogged all the film! Another time, we shot an ad for Alice Cooper’s new album. Since he had a thing for snakes, we brought in a snake. Cooper was naked on the set, and Avedon wanted him and the snake looking straight ahead at the camera. Well, the snake got himself wrapped around Cooper’s balls, and the snake handler, who was a woman, had to go unwrap it. Everyone broke up—his band mates were laughing, they were beside themselves.
How has assisting Avedon affected your view on photography? He worked very, very simply. His lighting was very simple, and I always felt that if you keep things as simple as possible and do them really, really well, they never go out of style.
How did working with Avedon affect your subsequent career? It opened a lot of doors. When you told people you worked for him, they knew how professional he was, so that got you in the door—it didn’t necessarily get you the work, but it got you in the door. The other benefit was that you could call up a modeling agency and get any girl you wanted to do some testing to build up your portfolio. I eventually went into shooting beauty and fashion. I worked in New York and I shot for Glamour, Seventeen, Clairol, and Maybelline. I found fashion and beauty very, very easy to do. After a certain point, the challenge wasn’t there. About fifteen years ago, I decided to switch to travel and documentary photography, and that’s what I do now. I’ve shot for National Geographic, and the National Geographic Traveler, Far and Geo magazines, and I’ve had some shows. I’m currently working on a long-term project on people who live in remote places and who are being left behind by the 21st century.
DOUGLAS MOTT 1992–1994* www.douglasmott.com
How did you first hear about Richard Avedon? I was studying art at Kenyon College in Ohio at the time. I was painting and drawing more than doing photography. The first time I came across Avedon was actually while researching for drawings and paintings I was working on; I was looking for large portraits to study. How did you get the job?
His first assistant at the time, Marc Royce, had graduated from Kenyon College where I was studying art. He told one of our photography professors that they were looking for an assistant. I knew Avedon’s work and got excited that it might work out, but all I had to show was paintings and drawings. I guess it didn’t matter—the fact that I had an interest in arts was enough for Avedon to hire me, which, I think, says a lot.
What was the most valuable lesson you learned while assisting Avedon? I think the thing that is extraordinary about Avedon is that he was so obsessed with his photography it literally consumed him. I’ve heard him say in interviews that he would forget who he was when he wasn’t paying attention to his photography. That was probably the most lasting impression that I had from working there—the tireless energy that he had. He is a legendary icon, but he was an extremely neurotic guy. I started working with him when he was 70. He was planning his retrospective at the Whitney; that was maybe the main focus of his work while I was with him. The review he got in New
York Magazine was kind of stinging. I’ll always remember that because I was like, “Why would you worry about that guy?” But he was so consumed with his work, the good and bad.
What was Avedon like as a person? He had the ability to make you feel like you were a part of his family or he was a part of yours. Depending on the situation, he could quickly shift back into the taskmaster and barely knew your name… It was amazing just to see how he surrounded himself with people, because working as a photographer now that’s so important to me—how do you surround yourself with people who will work at their highest level? It’s a dance, you have to be friendly when it’s appropriate, but the work is all consuming and all important, and I saw how he made that clear to everybody. The relationships were always subservient to that goal. He had enough loyalty and respect that it worked.
JONATHAN MANNION
1993–1994*
www.jonathanmannion.com
How did you get the job?
I went to Kenyon, a small Liberal Arts college in Ohio. I graduated in 1993 when the school gave Avedon an honorary degree to thank him for employing a number of their grads over the years. My professor put in a massive word for me to former Kenyon student Doug Mott who was assisting Avedon at the time… I always say that working there was like getting a Master and PhD in a year. You got to see big jobs from start to finish—whether you absorbed the message was on you, but thankfully I paid attention to every minute detail of the process. Even though there was a hierarchy, it was more about how the assistants communicated with him. It was easier to have a direct line of communication with the First than with him—Avedon wanted a point person he could deal with, and then it could filter down to execution. But once a task was put forth, it was all hands on deck and definitely a team effort.
What did you do during your time there? Avedon was preparing a retrospective at the Whitney; I had to unroll 40 year-old prints without the emulsion cracking—3 inches at a time on these massive, almost life-sized murals. The rest was normal studio maintenance and whatever needed to be done. I was the low man on the totem pole but I made myself invaluable and necessary. Driving $16,000,000 worth of prints to the archivist in New Jersey in 20 inches of snow? Nobody wants to do it? I want to do it!... You really signed up for whatever it took to make him fulfilled.
I started as Fourth Assistant and quickly moved to Third. Even though there was a hierarchy, it was more about how the assistants communicated with him. It was easier to have a direct line of communication with the First than with him—Avedon wanted a point person he could deal with, and then it could filter down to execution. But once a task was put forth, it was all hands on deck and definitely a team effort.
What’s the most valuable lesson you learned? I would say being able to see how he got the job, how he dealt with clients, how he went through his creative process and then delivered and kept clients happy to completion. I saw a master at work—somebody true to his own heart and vision, and uncompromising in how he attacked his work. His energy was amazing too; he was focused and driven. And I think one of his biggest qualities was his generosity with time and energy and sort of openness on how he approached work. People were let in on the process. The magic was his immense talent. It wasn’t that there were gimmicks—there was none—his work was just about his connection to the subject and the moment.
How was Avedon as a person? His energy was amazing; he was focused and driven. One of his biggest qualities was his generosity with time and energy and sort of openness on how he approached work. People were let in on the process. The magic was his immense talent. There was a connection that he could (or not) make based on what he wanted, and I think that’s what made him brilliant as a shooter. It was true artistry and theater. He was super animated and easily driven to excitement, especially when shooting—here was a guy in his 70s who would scream louder than a stereo system pounding music to achieve what he wanted for the picture.
Is there a shoot you remember in particular? Remember that I was this 23 year-old guy who had just moved to NY; I loaded and flipped the film while Avedon was shooting, and I took my job very seriously. One day, for a Pirelli calendar, we were going to shoot Naomi Campbell nude, just covered with sand. She had to get oiled up and roll around in the sand—again, totally nude. I’m on set and I’m mesmerized, looking at her while trying to not look at the same time. I’m trying to find a point somewhere in the studio and just look at that, but I’m a guy and she’s gorgeous so, yeah, I took a couple of peeks. And guess who got to help her up? Yours truly. That was certainly a highlight of my first year in New York—I don’t know if it gets better than that.
How do you think Avedon should be remembered? His contributions to photography
will forever be one of the best. His work is such an amazing example of where we need to go. We’re in an ADD society—people can’t sit and digest anything for more than ten seconds—but I think there will be a moment when Avedon is studied and analyzed, and that will bring a new appreciation of his work. I’m honored to bridge the worlds of fastpaced/spit-it-out-on-Instagram/tweet-it and of something that was crafted for weeks and months and marinated and drawn out and discussed. That’s real photography, and I hope that the industry moves back toward really what photography felt like.
What have you been up to since leaving Avedon?
I broke out from assisting loosely in about ‘95. I had a great entrance into music and celebrity by shooting Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt, his first album. Looking back, I realize I got almost complete coverage of the Hip-Hop genre. There was a point halfway through when I thought, “Oh my god, I can shoot every one of the major talents in the arena; I’m going to go for it!” It became my mission and, minus Tupac, I pretty much achieved it. Name the top twenty Hip-Hop artists you know—many of the photos you remember are mine. To get the definitive photo of that person at that moment in time was my goal, and that’s been the most rewarding.
How did you discover Avedon? I was a student at the University of Oklahoma, studied photography, minored in the history of photography, so of course I came across Avedon’s work. I went to school for sports; I’m a huge fan of athletic movement and the body, and he incorporated a lot of those movements into this fashion work. That’s what really drew me in.
1997–1998*
How did you get that job? When I graduated, I told my parents I wanted a ticket to New York. Of course, they were like, “You’re crazy,” but I still went, looked up Avedon’s studio in the phone book and called up. Luckily they had just gotten rid of the third assistant, so they said, “Sure, come on by and do an interview.” That’s how I got the job. I think that might be the only time that’s ever worked. To this day, when a young guy calls me up and says, “I really like your work, can I come by?” I say yes. What are some of the lessons that you picked up while assisting Avedon? One of the biggest
JAMES MACARI
www.jamesmacari.com
things that shocked me was his work ethic and the amount of time he invested in his work every day. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard in my life, except for
my parents. He lived and breathed photography, and he educated himself in whatever he needed to take a better photograph. He could have relied on his past work, but he was always pushing, and it was spectacular to watch… Most photographers use 35mm or medium format, with the camera up to their face, blocking them from their subject. With his 8x10, Avedon was able to stand next to the lens and interact with his subject. I think that’s one of the reasons why there’s such an amazing dynamic between him and his subject matter.
How has working with Avedon affected your view on photography? It made me realize it’s going to be really hard to take that good of a photograph ever again. I realized that he is one of the greatest photographers and you’re going to be hard-pressed to beat him or take a better picture. It’s kind of depressing in a way. He’s got books and books and books of images that people know around the world. It’s daunting, but it’s cool.
What was he like as a person? Dick was, you know, he was hard, as I think any true professional is. He was quite demanding. Any typical day, you came in at 7:30 and you work until he was done, and that could be anywhere between 7:30 and 10 o’clock. You worked weekends—because I was low on the totem pole, I came in on Saturday and Sunday to pull negatives, make copies and prints and whatever he had to do to make his work continue.
But he was also an incredibly generous man. Every day, the whole crew had lunch together, which I never experienced in any other studio. He would go back into his time shooting Marilyn Monroe or JFK, stories that were incredible. He was incredibly generous with his time. I remember that he once asked Sebastian Kim, his studio manager at the time, and I to his home in Montauk for work. While we were there, it was my birthday or something like that, and he went out of his way to celebrate it and sit down and have everyone talk about that. As a man who was as busy as he was and as celebrated as he was, for him to take the time to give back a little bit, that was a memorable moment for me and I’ll never forget that. He’d photographed the world but he still cared enough about the people that he worked with to say thank you.
Which shoot do you remember most?
The first big job that I was put into was shooting Versace. I was in the studio, twenty-seven years old, with Courtney Love, Donatella, Avedon, music blaring, and I was like, “Wow, this is crazy.” I had never seen anything like that—the hair, the makeup, and Avedon, Donatella, Courtney, it was bizarre. Now it’s kind of the norm, but as a young kid from Texas, it was pretty mind-altering.
Some of his other assistants mentioned his remarkable skill at directing talents. I’m wondering if you can attest to that. Oh definitely. Most photographers use a 35mm or a medium format, where they put the camera up into their face and it blocks them from their subject. With
the 8x10 Avedon was using, he was able to take his body and his face away from the camera, stand next to the lens and interact with his subject. I think that’s one of the reasons why there’s such an amazing dynamic between him and his subject matter. He’s not hidden by the camera, he’s there, talking to the person oneon-one, using hand gestures and his eyes, and you can hear him clearly. He was also a master of studying his subject matter; before he took that picture, whoever it may be, he knew everything about that person. That’s one thing that was spectacular to me—the knowledge he had on them and how he was able to use that to get the image that he wanted.
What is the highlight of your own personal career? Well, hopefully it hasn’t come yet! But one thing that I took away from him was that he was always interested in making books and how careful he was about how the photograph laid out on the page and the type. From there, I started a series of books called Saguaro; there will be ten books and we’ve done two of them already. I’d say that I’m most proud of those books—they’re my personal work as opposed to my fashion and advertising.
How did you get the job? I went to Brooks Institute in California. One of the students there became one of Avedon’s assistants and later called the school to find a Fourth Assistant. Even before I finished school, I went up to do a trial, but I didn’t really want to work for him: it was important for me to finish school and I didn’t want to work for somebody—I didn’t think I had the character to cut it. My professor really pushed me to cut out of school and take the job; it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and definitely a life-changing experience. There was a gradual progression: from being the Fourth, which was ordering lunches and cleaning the studio, to Third, which was loading the film, to being the Second, which was working the camera, to being the First, which was working the light. It definitely was a good training experience for the discipline, because it showed that photography is a lot of work—Dick was there all the time, lived at the studio, and was very much consumed.
How would you say assisting Avedon affected your view on photography? Looking back, I think his work was more about trimming the excess and just focusing on the subject. I think that was how he saw photography—as more of a character study, a people study.
What was a typical day like for a First Assistant? A day would start at 8 am. The assistants would have breakfast at the studio together; around 10 we would meet Bill Bachman, his personal assistant, and go through the schedule. It varied so much. When there was a shoot, we would have a pre-light the day before. Even though the lighting was very simple, we needed to test the light to see how the transparency would run based on the chemistry of the day. It was important to test everything out. A lot of the work was not so exciting. Assistants were definitely the very last to leave. Even though Avedon lived there, we were the ones who closed and cleaned up. It was a very traditional studio. We would be there until 8 or 9, even on non-shoot days. I also worked weekends—I would go to his home in Montauk, whether it was to do a project or just to be there with him.
Was he more relaxed when he was in Montauk? Definitely. He was professional, but… he was also always giving. He was very much like a father figure. He became very nurturing in a way. He would turn from a boss to a teacher when we would travel. He loved to travel; it was about going to museums, going to shows, going to nice dinners, and we
were very much involved in that. He really wanted to share his experiences with us. In Montauk he would be a host. He loved to cook and entertain—you could see that even with us assistants. We all knew that when he was out of the studio he turned into a different person.
What’s one of your favorite stories from working with him? A memorable, amazing experience was shooting the Dalai Lama for a project he did on religions for The New Yorker. We photographed him twice. The first time was at the Waldorf Astoria, in one of the rooms. We only had 5-10 minutes with him so we were all very, very anxious. Dick’s son, John, had written about the Dalai Lama. I wasn’t sure of their relationship, but the Dalai Lama seemed very happy to see Avedon. Dick took one or two frames to frame up, but then banged his head on the light. And the Dalai Lama went, “Ooh, you’ve been blessed,” and gave a big smile. Dick got three additional frames and said, “I’m done!” As an assistant I was horrified he had only shot four or five times—usually it was at least a couple rolls—but he knew he got the shot and didn’t pursue it anymore.
The second time, we went to India for about a month to where His Holiness was staying. Dick shot some of the monks there, and he photographed the Dalai Lama outside—you couldn’t tell because we shot him on a white background, but there was this amazing scenery behind him. It was very magical. I think those were the more memorable times. The memorable shoots weren’t necessarily the celebrities. The portraits of artists he did for The New Yorker were more interesting, because you got to know those people. The glamorous celebrities… to be honest I can’t even think of many.
Highlights of your career?
I finally made the break in 2007. I went to London and started shooting for a couple of the magazines there; that’s how in a way I was able to get my career jumpstarted… I ended up shooting for Nylon and the New York Times. I’m still doing a lot of editorials, mainly for Interview, Numero in Paris, Muse, GQ, Teen Vogue, Vogue Germany and China, Harpers Bazaar UK. When I started out, I wanted to focus on fashion, but roughly 2-3 years down the road I started getting portrait commissions from Interview. Portraiture was something I didn’t plan on exploring, but I am very excited when I’m shooting portraiture because it’s a counter-balance to the fashion that I do. It’s more intimate and it gets me to meet the people that I’m inspired by, that I admire.
www.sebastiankim.com
SEBASTIAN KIM
DAYMION MARDEL
www.daymion.com
1999-2004*
What was your first experience with Avedon's work that made you want to work with him? My first encounter with his work was his celebrated book, In the American West. It ignited my interest in apprenticing for Avedon.
How did you get the job?
My adviser at Brooks Institute of Photography, Paul Meyer, approached me during my second year to see if I had an interest in interning in New York City. I jumped on the idea. Paul referred me to Sebastian Kim, a Brooks alumni working as First Assistant to Avedon. I was selected as an intern, and during my first week I was asked to join full time. It was more than a dream come true.
What was the most valuable lesson you learned there? Simplicity. How would you say assisting Avedon affected your view on photography? It broadened my photography foundation, to include design, art, commerce, editing and lighting. It gave me an enormous amount of confidence and tenacity to deal with the highly competitive world of fashion photography.
What was Avedon like as a person? Curious, intelligent, focused, intense, demanding, charming, kind and observant. Describe a typical day assisting Avedon.
There was never a "typicalâ&#x20AC;? day at the studio. During my five-plusyear tenure, I went through three phases. The first phase, Avedon selected me to help produce his retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which to this day is still one of my proudest moments and achievements. The second phase was becoming a Master Printer and developing my technical skills. The last phase was overseeing and managing his studio while also having the honor to light his subjects and campaigns.
Tell us some of stories of your experiences while working with Avedon. After the advertising campaign shoots, I would develop the 8x10 color transparency film sheets, which meant the lab would have to remain open all night. Many nights, I was in the lab, running and testing film, and would sleep in an hired town car until it was finished. There were military night vision goggles to process the B&W 8x10 film sheets in the studio basement. The actual studio was about 600 square feet, and the paint he used was regular Benjamin Moore Super White Paint. Most days, we ate lunch as a family. Avedon loved the holidays; we always had a holiday feast before the break. Any retouching that was required was usually done by hand. We occasionally had lectures and teaching sessions on Alexey Brodovitch and guest speakers that included Twyla Tharp.
Photo by: Rodney Foliente
What was your first experience with Avedon's work? In 1994, I was at school studying to become a car photographer. American Photo came out with a special issue dedicated to Avedon, with a picture of a man covered in bees and a woman in front of elephants on its cover. Little did I dream that in five years from studying that issue—with its lighting diagrams, peeks into his equipment room and stories about his famous pictures—that I would be walking every day past a huge print of Dovima with the Elephants to my desk, my desk as assistant to Richard Avedon. After completing school in Santa Barbara, I headed up to San Francisco and started my first job in a still life studio. People had always been my biggest fear, so I based my whole school curriculum around not having to take portraiture class. Somehow my time in San Francisco changed all that. I wanted to conquer my fear; I wanted to become a fashion photographer and, with that in mind, I knew I had to move to New York City. After a year or so of assisting various advertising and fashion photographers here, a friend from school told me of a freelance position working for Patrick Demarchelier, who was then shooting everything from Harper's Bazaar to Princess Diana. Working for Patrick was wonderful, but when that same friend, who was Avedon’s assistant, called me and said, "Can you stop freelancing for Patrick and take a full-time position as Second Assistant here?" I only had to think for a few seconds.
How would you say assisting Avedon affected your own career? I often still think, "What would Dick do?” when I'm working… I'm still, to a certain point, that shy student in California, but now I have the confidence that Dick gave me.
1999-2004*
www.dirkkikstra.com
DIRK KIKSTRA
What was Avedon like as a person? He spent every day working and thinking about his craft, yet he rarely spoke about "photography." He spoke often and passionately about literature or the theater (his big love) or politics, but photography came up sparsely and really only to convey a feeling he wanted to get in an image, as instructions before a sitting. Dick had many sides to him: the crazy, demanding artist who would hit you if you were not loading film fast enough, or kick an art director out for asking a stupid question (“Is there going to be detail in the black?”), but also the compassionate man who called me about a hundred times while my wife was in labor with our first child. I think that is why he was so good.
Describe what you did, assisting Avedon. The studio had run on a hierarchy system for as long as anyone could remember. Assistants were selected from top schools as interns; then, if there was a full-time position, it was filled by the best intern. You started as a Fourth Assistant then moved up to a Third, who was in charge of equipment checks and darkroom supplies and handing film on set. Once you got to be Second Assistant, you were on camera—focusing, cropping, and following Dick’s framing requests—and you printed all the B&W prints that came out of the studio. You did the printing so that, when you were promoted to First Assistant/Studio Manager, you had a full understanding of how Dick wanted things lit. We all learned from each other and from the handed down system. Tell us stories of your experience while working there.
He was rather short, and he did not always like tall people—the staff had warned Dick of my height and sold me as a "Gentle Viking." Dick also ran his studio like a Samurai, cutting your hand off for little mistakes. (But he was forgiving on big blunders and would say, "You only get better when things go wrong!") My nerves were tested on my first day of photographing. "Oh, God, I hope it's all in focus," was all I could think about until the film rolled out of the darkroom. The next day, as Dick walked into the studio, my joy came out by picking him up (later I heard from witnesses his feet where dangling off the ground) and screaming, "It's great and in focus!"
The Last Conversation
September 2004. The phone rings. Upon answering, all I hear is a fumbling line and then a clearing of the throat. "Dirk, Dick. Is everything ready for D.C.?" "Yes, Dick, no problems." "Great." "How is it going in Texas?" "Wonderful, I really think this project is coming together, can't wait to be in D.C." "OK, see you soon." "Bye." "Bye." That's it, the last conversation I had with Dick. Short but sweet, kind of like most of the words we spoke. Dick was in Texas working on a project for The New Yorker that would become Democracy. The next day he was admitted into the hospital; within a week he was gone. A version of this interview first appeared in 180mag on December 2004.
“HOME TO THE FAMED OKAVANGO DELTA—THE WORLD’S LARGEST INLAND DELTA, AND ONE OF THE MOST REMOTE WILDLIFE DESTINATIONS IN AFRICA.”
P R O D U C T I O N S O F T H E W O R L D Words and Photos by Andy Biggs
205
When you hear about some far away safari destination in Africa, you will likely be hearing about Botswana. The country is at the heart of all things safari related, and for good reason. Bordered by Zambia, South Africa, and Namibia, Botswana’s landscape and wildlife is a study in contrasts. While it sits on the Kalahari Desert, the country is also home to the famed Okavango Delta—the world’s largest inland delta, and one of the most remote wildlife destinations in Africa. The former British protectorate gained independence in 1966; four decades of uninterrupted civilian leadership, progressive social and conservation policies, and enormous mineral wealth all add up to a stable society. Botswana offers excellent opportunities for safaris—many of the wildlife-rich locations allow for off-roading, which gives photographers angles that yield the best images.
O
K
A
N VA
GO
TA DEL M AU N
G HAN Z I
Botswana is UTC+2, i.e. NYC +6 or Los Angeles +9 hours.
Botswana’s landscape and wildlife are truly magnificent. The best-known destination is the Okavango Delta, which originates from the Kavango River from Angola. You’ll find there sand islands with palm trees, surrounded by shallow flood plains with cobalt blue water. The vegetation is varied; the best-known trees are the mopane, the camel thorn and marula.
F R AN C I STOWN
S E R OWE
KALAHARI DESERT
G A B ORON E
TS H A B O N G
Botswana’s semi-arid climate means that, even though the Okavango floods in the early months of the year, humidity remains quite low. The rainy season is in full swing between January and April, and should probably be avoided if you are a first time safari-goer. The drier season, from June through December, is best as the grasses are low enough to easily locate and photograph animals.
AVERAGE ºF J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
78
76
74
69
62
56
56
61
69
75
77
77
Botswana is in the Southern hemisphere, so seasons are the opposite from ours: summer months are November through April or May, winters run from June to October. Summer temperatures can be quite hot, reaching 110F, while the winter months can see 32F early in the morning. Winter months are dry, as all rainfall tends to occur during the warmer months.
LOCATION P E RM ITS: No permits are needed for photography if the images are used for non-commercial purposes. To obtain a commercial film permit, you need to fill out an application form on the Botswana government website (www.gov.bw). The cost is P10,000 per permit, and the following information will be needed: • • • • •
Synopsis of the documentary / film Proposed places to be filmed Exact location Purpose of film Passport information for all crew members
207
209
Exchange rate with the US $. US $1 = P7.82 (as of November 2012) Where is it best to exchange money? Banks are generally the best location; however there are many booths in the airports that will change money for you. Hotels are the most convenient, but also the most expensive option.
Tipping is something that is definitely nice to do, and is appreciated. 10% is a common tip for waiters. One dollar or one euro is also common for somebody who is helping you with your luggage at your hotel. Taxi drivers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect tips; however rounding up to the nearest Pula / Dollar / Euro spreads goodwill.
Driving in Botswana is easy enough, but for a safari you are likely to take a small plane or be driven to your camp. Self-drive safaris can be arranged, and there are a number of 4x4 rental companies in either Gabarone or Maun. English is widely spoken and it is very easy to arrange these services. The driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seat is on the right hand side of the vehicle, and vehicles drive on the left hand side of the road (English style).
The safari camps listed here are just for reference purposes. There are many more camps to choose from, and a more complete list can be found at www.eyesonafrica.net
ENTRY LEVEL $
M I D - L E V E L $$
M I D / H I G H L E V E L $$$
H I G H E S T L E V E L $$$$/$$$$$
Self-drive: www.safaridrive.com
Savute Safari Lodge: www.desertdelta.com
Chitabe Camp: www.wilderness-safaris.com
Mombo Camp: www.wilderness-safaris.com
Chobe Safari Lodge: www.chobesafarilodge.com
Banoka Bush Camp: www.wilderness-safaris.com
DumaTau Camp: www.wilderness-safaris.com
Zarafa Camp: www.greatplainsconservation.com
Savute Under Canvas: www.andbeyond.com
Selinda Camp: www.greatplainsconservation.com 211
Pap, also known as ugali in East Africa, is the most popular starch in Botswana. Pap is usually served with cabbage and other vegetables and beef as a daily meal.
Internet access is not common while out on safari, so be prepared to unplug and enjoy the bush! If communication is required, consider renting a satellite phone—the cost is typically around $.75 minute, with a weekly rental fee of around $50 for the phone. Cell phone coverage is very spotty out in the bush, and one can never be guaranteed that a signal will be available long enough to make a phone call.
Entry as a tourist requires no special arrangements; however, if working in Botswana, please contact your local Botswana consulate for specific requirements of entry, as well as cost.
VACCINE AND OTHER H E A LT H R E Q U I R E M E N T S : There are no vaccine requirements, but antimalarial medicine is recommended in most wildlife-rich areas.
Electricity supply is 230 volts, and the socket style is “South Africa” (so, yes, you will need to bring an adapter). Video format is PAL. Languages: English, Setswana, and other regional / tribal languages
JANUARY 1
MARCH / APRIL
MAY 1
MAY/JUNE
3RD MONDAY IN JUNE
SEPTEMBER 30
DECEMBER 25
DECEMBER 26
New Years’ Day
Good Friday & Easter Monday
Labour Day
Ascension Day
President’s Day
Botswana Day
Christmas Day
Boxing Day 213
215
W H AT TO EXPECT ON A SAFARI A typical safari day is made up of two separate game drives: one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. Most game drives depart camp just before sunrise; when the light is harsh, a breakfast or brunch is served back at camp. During mid-day you are left to enjoy the camp, take a nature walk, download your photographs, or rest. The afternoon game drive is typically conducted after a mid-to-late afternoon tea, depending on the season, and will finish after sunset. Vehicles can get quite close to the animals; however the best photographs happen when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at eye level to the subject. The farther the animal, the less obvious a higher shooting position is. But, obviously, some animals require a significant amount of distance for safety reasons. While on the drive, the guide will explain what is being seen, what the animals are doing, and why they are doing it. On specialized photographic safaris, you also get additional information on how to best photograph them. Nothing beats a long day out in the bush, finished off by a sundowner cocktail!
About the author: Andy B i g g s i s a p ro fe ss i o n a l photographer who has been working and photographing in Botswana for years. If you have any questions about shooting there, please email him at info@andybiggs.com.
217
ARTS
& entertainment
DOCUMENTARY
Chasing Ice U.S. RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 11, 2012 DIRECTOR: JEFF ORLOWSKI WRITERS: MARK MONROE CINEMATOGRAPHY: JEFF ORLOWSKI TIME-LAPSE DIRECTION AND STILL PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES BALOG EDITOR: DAVIS COOMBE
Review by Janet Alexander Images courtesy of James Balog
It’s been five years since James Balog initiated the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the most extensive ground-based photographic glacier study ever conducted. Known for his nature photojournalism, as well as being the first photographer ever commissioned to create a series of stamps for the U.S. Postal Service , Balog summarizes his work as a “voice for landscapes.” B o r n i n D a n v i l le , PA , h e developed an interest in nature in his early childhood, apparently influenced by his mother, who was a professional landscape painter. Balog became an avid outdoorsman, mountaineering while earning a master’s degree in geomorphology at the University of Colorado, and soon realized his future laid in capturing his experiences through the lens of a camera instead of examining them through the lens of a microscope.
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
“Is the world a better place if we all stay silent?” It was during the late ‘70s when Balog began using a Nikon to teach himself the basis of photography. He recalls that most any landscape photographer you asked at the time would cite Ansel Adams and Elliot Porter as their influences; so instead of “repeating the glory of wilderness pictures,” Balog says, “I somehow thought ‘OK, everything that’s been said about wilderness has been said already, but there’s this whole other dynamic going on—wrestling back and forth—that would be a much richer place to be devoting myself.’” His foray into glacial retreat began in 2005 when The New Yorker dispatched him to photograph glaciers in Iceland, which then led to a National Geographic assignment a year later to document glaciers in various parts of the world. The EIS is now the latest study of Balog’s career based on what he calls “the collision zone”—that is, spaces that demonstrate human impact on the natural environment. Working with a team of scientists, videographers and extreme-weather expedition experts, Balog spent six months testing the EIS’s extraordinarily durable camera system. He and his team installed as many as fortythree Nikon D200 DSLRs at a time on eighteen glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, the Nepalese Himalaya and the Rocky Mountains, representative of distinct regional conditions and deemed of “high scientific value” by glaciologists. Enduring 150mph alpine and arctic winds, temperatures as low as -40°F, blizzards, landslides, torrential downpours and avalanches, the cameras were protected by waterproof Pelican cases, mounted on Bogen tripod heads, and affixed onto cliff faces above the glaciers by anchors and guy wires. Each of the resulting camera units weighs anywhere between 125 and 150 pounds. Intervalo-meters shoot once every half-hour during daylight hours, amounting to 8,000 images per camera per year. Solar panels collect power, which
is then stored in batteries, while a customized series of electronic controllers triggers the cameras to shoot once there is sufficient light. The total survey archives now include more than 800,000 frames. The digital images are downloaded as frequently as every few months, or as rarely as once a year, depending on how remote the site is. Cameras are serviced by expedition teams on foot, skies, horseback, dog sled, fishing boats, and helicopters that can cost up to $8,500 an hour to charter. So perhaps it’s not all that surprising that the most difficult part of the EIS is not the unpredictable terrain, or the threatening weather, or even the complex technological logistics, but rather raising the money necessary to continue the project. “It’s like chasing smoke,” Balog says. Balog had been producing his own short informational videos in order to fundraise for the EIS, but was frustrated with the costly expense of recording and was about to quit when a friend introduced him to a Stanford University senior film student, Jeff Orlowski. Orlowski became solely responsible for financing, allowing Balog to resume his environmental focus. “It’s not about the camera,” Balog says, before stopping himself and quickly clarifying, “Well, it’s all about the camera, in the beginning.” Viewing photography as an invaluable form of visual evidence, Balog considers himself, and photographers in general, as the “antennae of civilization—feeling in the darkness, trying to see what’s around us and reveal what hasn’t been revealed before.” The resulting feature-length documentary, Chasing Ice, premiered in theaters across the United States in November and has proven to be as much a compelling testimony of climate change as it is the impressive demonstration of the awesome power of the image that impassions Balog.
ARTS: DOCUMENTARY-”Chasing Ice” Page 219
Talking with Balog, I ask him how the film has been received. “I’m on the twentieth floor of this commercial building here in New York, with walls of windows all around me. All of these rectangular windows are like a documentary, providing a portal through which we can look and see the world and rethink.” From inside the building, we’re held captive by our decisions—namely, to ignore the impending consequences of environmental degradation—but there’s an ability to see beyond our immediate circumstances (or in the case of this apt metaphor, outside the windows). Once you do, you realize there’s another version of life existing through them, and you can break out from the buildings. Or not. “The world has a way of humming along,” Balog believes. “The status quo prevails, we get tired and decide what we do doesn’t matter, but in fact, I think that’s unduly pessimistic.” And ultimately, for Balog, it comes down to asking ourselves, “Is the world a better place if we all stay silent?”
“Goddammit, we need to do something about this!” The EIS’s major findings to date are also the subject of Balog’s new book, Ice: Portraits of the World’s Vanishing Glaciers , which was released on September 11th. Not to be mistaken as a concluding capstone, the book is a milestone installment of the EIS, which Balog says will continue indefinitely and foresees, “Five years out, there’ll be a Chasing Ice sequel.” With no signs of slowing down, in Balog’s opinion, the “glacial pace” of melting ice “should be of interest to every human on this planet.” Balog is hoping the enormity and rigor of his environmental conscience will inspire people; as he explains, “Not enough people have slammed their fist on the table and said, ‘Goddammit, we need to do something about this!’”
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
As unforgiving as arctic environments a re , B a lo g i s n ’ t t h e o n ly o n e who’s chasing ice. Large-scale photographer Caleb Cain Marcus ventured to Patagonia, Iceland, Norway, and Alaska for his second monograph, A Portrait of Ice, which explores our relationship to space through photographs of icebergs unlike anything you’ve seen before. While Dublin-born photographer Dave Walsh works with the International Polar Foundation in Brussels, to promote environmental activism. His photography book, The Cold Edge, shows the Arctic and Antarctic in peril from climate change.
ARTS: DOCUMENTARY-”Chasing Ice” Page 221
BOOK CLUB
New Releases
IDENTICALPORTRAITS OF TWINS BY MARTIN SCHOELLER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN SCHOELLER PUBLISHED BY TENEUES 132 PAGES-110 COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS Review by Janet Alexander
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
You’ll be seeing more than just double with Martin Schoeller’s photographs of twins and multiples. Who better to focus on the minute physical differences and fine details distinguishing identical twins than the symmetry obsessed master of close-up portraiture himself? With his ever analytical eye, Schoeller’s images show us what usually remains unseen to the naked eye. These images of biological anomalies are meant to be examined as such; so for once, you don’t have to feel bad for staring. Available now Price: $75.00 | www.teneues.com
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST
BY DAN MARTENSEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAN MARTENSEN PUBLISHED BY DAMIANI DISTRIBUTED BY D.A.P 112-PAGES-60 COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS Review by Raquel Gil New York acclaimed art, fashion and editorial photographer Dan Martensen started photographing images portraying isolation in towns across the southwest, on a drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2001. This 112-page book features sixty images that eerily convey a sense of loss, nostalgia, and occasional visual humor. They invoke a population come and long gone, and the destitution and ruin resulting from the economic recession of 2008. Art writer Jason Farago praised, “the political message of Martensen’s photographs, one that touches upon economic policy and immigration as well as the sense that the nation has lost some of its promise after the Bush years.” Yet the book doesn’t intend to stir polemics as much as to offer a candid reflection on loss and absence. Available now Price: $50.00 | www.artbook.com
LIFE’S A BEACH
BY MARTIN PARR PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN PARR PUBLISHED BY APERTURE 80 PAGES-98 FOUR COLOR IMAGES Review by Janet Alexander The island life featured in the aptly titled, Life’s a Beach, is the first compilation of photographer Martin Parr devoted to his life-long obsession with beaches. With individual prints inserted into each page, the book more closely resembles a family album, and documents the seaside of such international destinations as Argentina, Brazil, China, Spain, Italy, Latvia, and Japan. This collection is the result of decades photographing life as it exists between sand and surf, and if nothing else, will bring a sun-kissed warmth to your winter coffee table. Limited Editon (1000 copies) available now | Mini-Edition will be released in spring 2013 Price: $200.00/$25.00 | www.aperture.org
ARTS: BOOK CLUB-”New Releases” Page 223
A NEW AMERICAN PICTURE BY DOUG RICKARD PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOUG RICKARD PUBLISHED BY APERTURE FOUNDATION 144 PAGES-79 FOUR COLOR IMAGES Review by Janet Alexander
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
A New American Picture is a street photography monograph fit for the digital age, and so, indeed, lives up to its name by offering a new kind of picture of America. Rickard spent two years re-photographing images from Google Maps, Earth, and Street View, as they had appeared on his computer screen. More specifically, Rickard points a critical lens to forgotten, abandoned, and declining places—both rural and urban—in America. The notion of image as re-presentation is manifested literally, and Rickard’s effort is unique in relating virtual to actual reality. Available now Price: $60.00 | www.aperture.org
STORY TELLER
BY MARC ASNIN PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARC ASNIN PUBLISHED BY CONTRASTO BOOKS 408 PAGES-220 BLACK & WHITE IMAGES Review by Raquel Gil New York-based photographer Mark Asnin began to informally document his uncle in the early ‘80s. He used his camera to get to know this complex and melancholic character. “People often ask me what Uncle Charlie is about... This book is life… It’s about broken dreams, disappointment, and having the resiliency to find slivers of happiness in an oppressed existence,” said Asnin. The deeply personal and intimate images capture a remarkable portrait of a man and his strugggles. Available now Price: $49.00 | www.contrastobooks.com
ARTS: BOOK CLUB-”New Releases” Page 225
CAUSE
100cameras: Saving the World, One Camera at a Time.
By Justin Sedor I Images courtesy of 100cameras
How do you photograph something you could never possibly understand? It’s a haunting question for those who document places of suffering and hardship. How can you help bring awareness and change when you’re an outsider, fundamentally incapable of telling the stories of a place as they actually happened, without bias or baggage?
The premise is almost poetically simple: 100cameras works with local organizations in disadvantaged areas, usually orphanages or community centers, to get digital cameras into the hands of children. During each two-week program, kids, ranging from six to sixteen years old, are trained in the basics of photography and sent out to document their lives. The resulting images are compiled into a traveling gallery exhibition, posted online, and made available for sale; all the proceeds go back to the children and their community. Angela Bullock, 100cameras’ co-founder and Communications Director, says that their goals are as simple as their model. “Our goal is to address needs and poverty from the inside out, asking [people] what they see and what they need,” rather than imposing an agenda or an outsider’s assessment. Bullock adds, “It’s about empowering children—and teaching them that their perspective matters.”
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
So far, the organization has completed projects in Sudan, Cuba, and Manhattan’s Lower East Side, generating thousands of dollars for these communities, as well as media attention and grant funding to help 100cameras grow. Next up: India, where the team will try out a new, more comprehensive photo curriculum with cameras furnished by Leica.
100cameras: www.100cameras.org
The search for answers to these questions led Angela Bullock, Susanna Kohly, Kelly Reynolds and Emily Schendel to start what is now 100cameras. While each had worked in the nonprofit field, Kohly’s photojournalism background had made her see first-hand the limitations that an outsider faces. Above all, their common frustration with traditional models of foreign aid, which attached strings and conditions for funding, fed their desire to find a way to bring aid in the most sensitive, proactive, and respectful way possible. With photography, the women saw a chance to empower people, helping them help themselves by selling something only they have—their vision.
Read Resource: Enjoy Resource Magazine anytime, anywhere, with our digital edition. Get expanded articles, exclusive features, and social media community integration--â&#x20AC;?Likeâ&#x20AC;? your favorite brands and artists -- for an ultra affordable $4 per issue, making it a virtual steal.
www.resourcemagonline.com
FLASHED
Gizmodo Event NYC
SEVAN GATSB
Y
ERIK ROCCA
Photos by Robert Whitman
Model, Actor, Photographer. Likes to shoot: Still life, portraits. Still life work was featured in New York Times Magazine. www.erikrocca.com
“Unicorn”. Works in Public Relations, Graphic and Web Designer. Likes to shoot: Candid portraits, events, journalistic, people interacting. www.sevangatsby.com
Canon G12
Canon Rebel XS
Olympus Stylus 850SW Photographer, Musician, Artist. Likes to shoot: Scenic, urban, “freestyle with time lapse”, and “what earth leaves you”. www.emrimages.wix.com/emr
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
Artist. Likes to shoot: People and fashion. www.facebook.com/marusya.panchenko
www.robertwhitman.com
MARUSYA
EVAN RO
SS
PANCHEN KO
X-E1 Fujifilm
IMAGE: XXXX-“xxxxx” Page 229
RESOURCE ARIZONA- TEMPE EQUIPMENT RENTAL Tempe Camera Repair* 606 W University Dr. Tempe, AZ 85281 480.966.6954 www.tempecamera.biz
CALIFORNIALOS ANGELES PHOTO LABS A&I Photographic & Digital Services* 933 N Highland Ave Hollywood, CA 90038 323.856.5280 mail@aandi.com www.aandi.com
directory
Pix Inc.* 211 South La Brea Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.936.8488 rentals@pixcamera.com sales@pixcamera.com www.pixcamera.com RENTAL STUDIOS 5th & Sunset* 12322 Exposition Blvd West Los Angeles, CA 90064 310.979.0212 jblakely@mac.com www.5thandsunsetla.com Lightbox Studio* 7122 Beverly Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.933.2080 info@lightboxstudio.com www.lightboxstudio.com
The Icon* 5450 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.933.1666 icon@iconla.com www.iconla.com
Milk LA* 855 N. Cahuenga Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.469.8900 info-la@milkstudios.com www.milkstudios.com
PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet* 1135 N Highland Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.466.1238 www.calumetphoto.com
Quixote Griffith Park* 4585 Electronics Place Los Angeles, CA 90039 323.851.5030 abel@quixote.com www.quixote.com
Castex Rentals* 1044 Cole Ave. Hollywood, CA 90038 323.462.1468 service@castexrentals.com www.castexrentals.com
Pier 59 Studios West* 2415 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 310.829.5959 alexandra@pier59studios.com www.pier59studioswest.com
The Edge Grip* 1388 S Longwood Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90019 323-934-3300 rentals@theedgegrip.com www.theedgegrip.com
Siren Studios* 6063 W Sunset Blvd Hollywood, CA 90019 323.467.3559 gambino@sirenstudios.com www.sirenstudios.com
Smashbox Studios Culver City* 8549 Higuera St. Culver City, CA 90323 310.558.1460 sb@smashboxstudios.com www.smashboxstudios.com Smashbox Studios West Hollywood* 1011 N Fuller Ave. Hollywood, CA 90046 323.851.5030 sb@smashboxstudios.com www.smashboxstudios.com The LA Lofts* 6442 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.462.5880 thelalofts@mac.com www.thelalofts.com The Studio* 6442 Santa Monica Blvd - #202 Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.791.7757 jewely@thestudiola.com www.thestudiola.com
CALIFONIASAN DIEGO PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet San Diego* 830 W. Valley Parkway #330 Escondido, CA 92025 760.737.6002 www.calumetphoto.com
CALIFORNIASAN FRANCISCO PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet* 2001 Bryant St. San Francisco, CA 94110 415.643.9275 www.calumetphoto.com
Adolph Gasser* 181 2nd St. San Francisco, CA 94105 415.495.3852 www.gassersphoto.com PHOTO LAB Dickerman Prints* 3180 17th St. San Francisco, CA 94110 415.252.1300 info@dickermanprints.com www.DickermanPrints.com Light Waves Imaging* 130 Russ St. San Francisco, CA 94103 415.431.9651 orders-sf@lightwavesimaging.com www.lightwavesimaging.com PRODUCTION SUPPLIES JCX Expendables* 3050 23rd St. San Francisco, CA 94110 415.824.4110 jcxex@pacbell.net www.jcxex.com STUDIO RENTAL 4th Street Studio* 560 4th St. San Francisco, CA 94107 415.593.7755 info@4thststudios.com www.4thststudios.com Dogpatch Studios* 991 Tennessee St. San Francisco, CA 94107 415.641.3017 info@dogpatchstudios.com www.dogpatchstudios.com Left Space* 2055 Bryant St. San Francisco, CA 94110 415.285.5338 studio@leftspace.com www.leftspace.com
LUX-SF* 2325 3rd St. - #347 San Francisco, CA 94107 415.633.6063 studio@lux-sf.com www.lux-sf.com Purebred Studio* 436 N. Canal St. #7 South San Francisco, CA 94080 650.952.6200 info@purebredpro.com www.purebredstudio.com Sintak Studio* 2779 16th St. San Francisco, CA 94103 415.255.7734 studio@sintak.net www.sintak.net The Nine Studios* 349 Ninth St. San Francisco, CA 94103 415.252.8551 brandon@theninesf.com www.theninesf.com
CALIFORNIASANTA ANA PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet Santa Ana* 1430 S. Village Way Santa Ana, CA 92705 714.285.0143 www.calumetphoto.com
FLORIDA- MIAMI PHOTO EQUIPMENT Aperture Miami* 385 NE 59th St. Miami, FL 33137 305.759.4327 apsrental@yahoo.com www.aperturepro.com J & E Productions Photo Equipment Rental* 170-B NW 24th St. Miami, FL 33127 917.756.4004 / 917.757.4006 info.jeproductions@gmail.com www.bathhousemiami.com
MAPS* 212 Collins Ave. Miami Beach, FL 33139 305.532.7880 info@mapsproduction.com www.mapsproduction.com
MAPS Studio* 212 Collins Ave. Miami Beach, FL 33139 305.532.7880 info@mapsproduction.com www.mapsproduction.com
STUDIO RENTALS Aperture Studios Miami* 385 NE 59th St. Miami, FL 33137 305.759.4327 apsrental@yahoo.com www.aperturepro.com
One Source Studios* 6440 NE 4th Court Miami, FL 33138 305.751.2556 andrew@onesourcestudios.com www.onesourcestudios.com
Carousel Studios* 3700 NE First Court Miami, FL 33137 305.576.3686 tommy@carouselstudios.com www.carouselstudios.com Little River Studios* 300 NE 71st St. Miami, FL 33138 305.573.1395 info@littleriverstudios.com www.littleriverstudios.com
Photopia Studios* 360 NE 62nd St. Miami, FL 33138 305.534.0290 photopia@bellsouth.net www.photopiamiami.com Splashlight Studios* 167 NE 26th St. Miami, FL 33137 305.572.0094 infomiami@splashlight.com www.splashlight.com
Trendy Studio* 196 NW 24th St. Miami, FL 33127 395.438.4244 studio@trendystudio.net www.trendystudio.net
Space Stage Studios* 1844 W. Hubbard Chicago, IL 60622 312.733.8017 info@productproductions.com www.spacestagestudios.com
ILLINOIS- CHICAGO
MASSACHUSETTSBOSTON
EVENT PLANNING Ivan Carlson* 2224 W. Fulton Chicago, IL 60612 312.829.4616 scott@ivancarlson.com www.ivancarlson.com PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet Photographic* 1111 N. Cherry Ave. Chicago, IL 60642 312.440.4920 www.calumetphoto.com Calumet Oak Brook* 1600 W. 16th St. Oak Brook, IL 60523 630.860.7458 www.calumetphoto.com Dodd Camera* 2840 W. Armitage Ave. Chicago, IL 60647 773.227.3633 chicagorentals@doddpro.com www.doddcamera.com Helix Rental* 1205 W. Jackson Blvd Chicago, IL 60607 312.421.6000 rental@helixcamera.com www.helixphoto.com ProGear Rental* 1740 W. Carroll Ave. Chicago, IL 60612 312.376.3770 info@progearrental.com www.progearrental.com STUDIO RENTAL Morgan Street Studios* 456 N. Morgan St. Chicago, IL 60642 312.226.0009 rental@morganstreetstudios.com www.morganstreetstudios.com Northlight Studio* 2023 W. Carroll Ave. #C304 Chicago, IL 60612 773.466.1556 info@northlightchicago.com www.northlightchicago.com
EQUIPMENT RENTAL Calumet Boston* 105 First St. Cambridge, MA 02141 617.576.2600 www.calumetphoto.com STUDIO RENTAL Quixote Studios Boston* 184 Everett St. Boston, MA 02134 617.903.3373 JasonN@quixote.com www.quixote.com
MINNESOTAMINNEAPOLIS EQUIPMENT RENTAL Flashlight Photorental* 1400 Van Buren St. Northeast Minneapolis, MN 55413 612.558.3838 info@flashlightphotorental.com flashlightphotorental.com
NEW YORKNEW YORK ART GALLERIES The Invisible Dog Art Center* 51 Bergen St. Brooklyn, NY 11021 347.560.3641 lucien@theinvisibledog.org www.theinvisibledog.org United Photo Industries* 111 Front St. #204 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.215.9075 info@unitedphotoindustries.com www.unitedphotoindustries.com
ARTIFICIAL FOLIAGE American Foliage & Design Group* 122 W 22nd St. New York, NY 10011 212.741.5555 afdesigngr@aol.com www.americanfoliagedesign.com
PHOTO EQUIPMENT ARC* 42 W 18th St. - 6th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.627.8487 rent@adorama.com www.adoramarentals.com
PROP RENTALS Arenson Prop Center* 396 10th Ave. New York, NY 10001 212.564.8383 www.aof.com
Calumet* 22 W 22nd St. New York, NY 10010 212.989.8500 www.calumetphoto.com
Props For Today* 330 W 34th St. - 12th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.244.9600 info@propsfortoday.com www.propsfortoday.com
CSI Rentals* 133 W 19th St. New York, NY 10011 212.243.7368 www.csirentals.com
The Prop Company* 111 W 19th St. - 8th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.691.7767 propcompany@aol.com
Foto Care* 43 W 22nd St. New York, NY 10010 212.741.2991 rental@fotocare.com www.fotocare.com
PROP STYLIST stylist@thepropstylist.com www.thepropstylist.com
K&M Camera* 385 Broadway New York, NY 10013 212.523.0954 rental@kmcamera.com www.kmcamera.com Root [EQ]* -Manhattan: 435 W 18th St. New York, NY 10011 212.727.1941 EQ@rootnyc.com www.rootnyc.com -Brooklyn: 131 N 14th St. Brooklyn, NY 11211 718.349.2740 EQ@rootbkn.com www.rootbk.com Scheimpflug* 236 W 30th St. New York, NY 10001 212.244.8300 Info@scheimpflug.net www.scheimpflug.net
PRINTER Gotham Imaging 37 W 26th St. New York, NY 10010 212.206.7776 contact@gothamimaging.com www.gothamimaging.com RENTAL STUDIOS 2 Stops Brighter 231 W 29th St. New York, NY 10001 212.868.5555 info@2stopsbrighter.com www.2stopsbrighter.com 3rd Ward* 195 Morgan Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11237 718.715.4961 info@3rdward.com www.3rdward.com 16 Beaver Street Studio 16 Beaver St. New York, NY 10004 212.425.4736 info@16beaverstudio.com www.16beaverstudio.com
PHOTO LAB Duggal Visual Solutions* 29 W 23rd St. New York, NY 10010 212.242.7000 info@duggal.com www.duggal.com
Above Studio 23 E 31st St. New York, NY 10016 212.545.0550 x3 info@abovestudiorental.com www.abovestudiorental.com
PRODUCTION COMPANY ajproductionsny, inc. 212.979.7585 ajprodnyc@mac.com www.ajproductionsny.com
Attic Studios 1105 44th Rd - 3rd Fl. Long Island City, NY 11101 718.360.1978 matt@atticstudios.net www.atticstudios.net
Bathhouse Studios New York* 540 E 11th St. New York, NY 10009 212.388.1111 manager@bathhousestudios.com www.bathhousestudios.com
Camart Studio Rentals 6 W 20th St. - 4th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.691.8840 rentals@camart.com www.camart.com
Cinema World Studios 220 Dupont St. Greenpoint, NY 11222 718.389.9800 cinemaworldfd@verizon.net www.cinemaworldstudios.com
Fast Ashleys Brooklyn* 95 N 10th St. Brooklyn, NY 11249 718.782.9300 michael@fastashleysstudios.com www.fastashleysstudios.com
Boutique Studios 1089 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11221 917.500.2238 NewYorkPhotoDesign@gmail.com www.BoutiqueStudiosNewYork.com
Canoe Studio* 601 W 26th St. – 14th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212. 924.9020 bookings@canoestudios.com www.canoestudios.com
Dakota Studio 78 Fifth Ave. - 8th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.691.2197 matt@dakotastudio.com www.dakotastudio.com
Gary’s Manhattan Penthouse Loft* 28 W 36th St. - PH New York, NY 10018 917.837.2420 gary@garysloft.com www.garysloft.com
Brooklyn Big 80 Vernon Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11206 786.346.5933 BrooklynBigStudio@gmail.com www.BrooklynBigStudio.com
Contra Studios* 122 W. 26th St. - 5th Fl. New York, NY 10001 646.480.5506 www.contrastudios.com
elk Studios* 164 W 25th St. – 12th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.252.8550 rentals@elkstudios.com www.elkstudios.com
Brooklyn Studios* 211 Meserole Ave. - 2nd Fl. Brooklyn, NY 11222 718.392.1007 brooklynstudios@verizon.net www.brooklynstudios.net
Dune Studios NYC* 121 Varick St. New York, NY 10013 212.235.6500 info@dunestudiosnyc.com www.dunestudiosnyc.com
Factory Studios* 79 Lorimer St. Brooklyn, NY 11206 718.690.3980 carrie@factorybrooklyn.com www.factorybrooklyn.com
Gary’s Loft* 470 Flushing Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11205 917.837.2420 gary@garysloft.com www.garysloft.com Go Studios* 245 W 29th St. New York, NY 10001 212.564.4084 info@go-studios.com www.go-studios.com
Go Studios Penthouse* 318 W 39th St. New York, NY 10018 212.564.4084 info@go-studios.com www.go-studios.com
Picture Ray Studio* 245 W 18th St. New York, NY 10011 212.929.6370 bookings@pictureraystudio.com www.pictureraystudio.com
Splashlight* 75 Varick St. - 3rd Fl. New York, NY 10013 212.268.7247 info@splashlight.com www.splashlight.com
SURFACE RENTALS Surface Studio* 242 W 30th St. - #1202 New York, NY 10001 212.244.6107 www.surfacestudio.com
Good Light Studio* 450 W 31st St. - #9C New York, NY 10001 212.629.3764 manager@goodlightstudio.com www.goodlightstudio.com
Pier 59 Studios* Pier #59 - 2nd Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.691.5959 booking@pier59studios.com www.pier59studios.com
Studio 225 Chelsea* 225 W 28th St. - #2 New York, NY 10001 917.882.3724 james@jamesweberstudio.com www.studio225chelsea.com
WARDROBE RENTALS RRRentals* 245 W 29th St. - #11 New York, NY 10001 212.242.6120 info@rrrentalsny.com www.rrrentalsny.com
Industria Superstudio* 775 Washington St. New York, NY 10014 212.366.1114 info@industrianyc.com www.industrianyc.com
Pure Space* 601 W 26th St. - #1225A New York, NY 10001 212.937.6041 rida@purespacenyc.com www.purespacenyc.com
Studio 385 77 Franklin St. New York, NY 10013 212.393.1307 contact@exposurecapture.com www2.exposurecapture.com/ studio.html
Jack Studios* 601 W 26th St. New York, NY 10001 212.367.7590 ron@jackstudios.com www.jackstudios.com
Root [Brooklyn]* 131 N 14th St. Brooklyn, NY 11211 718.349.2740 info@rootbrooklyn.com www.rootbrooklyn.com
Lightspace Studio* 1115 Flushing Ave. Brooklyn, New York 11237 212.202.0372 reserve@lightspace.tv www.lightspace.tv
Root [Drive-In]* 443 W 18th St. New York, NY 10011 212.645.2244 info@driveinstudios.com www.driveinstudios.com
Location 05* 509 W 34th St. – 2nd Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.219.2144 info@location05.com www.location05.com
Shoot Digital* 23 E 4th St. New York, NY 10003 212.353.3330 info@shootdigital.com www.shootdigital.com
Metrodaylight Studio* 450 W 31st St. - 8 & 9th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.967.2000 info@metromotion.com www.metromotion.com
Shooting Kitchen* 13-17 Laight St. #12 New York, NY 10013 917.262.0816 jackie@shootingkitchen.com www.shootingkitchen.com
Milk/Formula* 450 W 15th St. New York, NY 10011 212.645.2797 www.milkstudios.com
Studios LIC* 2107 Borden Ave. - 5th Fl. Long Island City, NY 11101 347.689.4388 info@studioslic.com www.studioslic.com
Neo Studios* 628 Broadway - #302 New York, NY 10012 212.533.4195 mail@neostudiosnyc.com www.neostudiosnyc.com NoHo Productions* 636 Broadway - 8th Fl. New York, NY 10012 212.228.4068 info@nohoproductions.com www.nohoproductions.com
Some Studio 150 W 28th St. - #1602 New York, NY 10001 212.691.7663 somebody@somestudio.com www.somestudio.com
Studio LIC* 21-07 Borden Ave. Long Island City, NY 11101 646.275.4090 info@studioslic.com www.studioslic.com Sun Studios* 628 Broadway – 6th Fl. New York, NY 10012 212.387.7777 sunstudios@sunnyc.com www.sunstudios.com Sun West Studios* 450 W 31st St. - 10th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.330.9900 bookings@sunwestnyc.com www.sunwestnyc.com The Space* 425 W 15th St. - 6th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.929.2442 info@thespaceinc.com www.thespaceinc.com Tribeca Skyline Studios* 205 Hudson St. - PH New York, NY 10013 212.344.1999 claudia@tribecaskyline.com www.tribecaskyline.com Zoom Studios* 20 Vandam St. - 4th Fl. New York, NY 10013 212.243.9663 zoomstudios@yahoo.com www.zoomstudios.net
WARDROBE SUPPLY Manhattan Wardrobe Supply* 245 W 29th St. - 8th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.268.9993 info@wardrobesupplies.com www.wardrobesupplies.com
PENNSYLVANIAPHILADELPHIA PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet Philadelphia* 1400 S. Columbus Blvd Philadelphia, PA 19147 215.399.2155 www.calumetphoto.com
VIRGINIA- VIENNA PHOTO EQUIPMENT Penn Camera Tysons Corner* 8357-E Leesburg Pike Vienna, VA 22182 703.893.7366 www.calumetphoto.com
WASHINGTON D.C PHOTO EQUIPMENT Penn Camera E Street* 840 E. St. NW Washington, DC 20004 202.347.5777 www.calumetphoto.com
*Distribution sites.
FOR LISTING OR ADVERTISING INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT US AT: info@resourcemagonline.com
36 E 30th St NEw York NY 10016 212 457 0095 highlight-StudioS.com
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 101
Four years later, Bernay can now take comfort in his professional skills as the official photographer for Argentina’s Time4Fun Entertainment, but admits that he prefers the comfort that comes with being hired by a band or record label: “You get to be on stage, go backstage; I can move around with complete freedom without any security people having to tell me to put my camera away.” At the very least, Bernay ensures his own comfort and says, “I try to be sure about what I want from each show before leaving my studio or house.” Keeping his equipment to a bare minimum, he only carries whatever his pockets and hands will fit. With so much at stake, Bernay exclusively relies on the familiarity of his tried-and-true analog lenses, including crystal lenses he originally inherited from his father. As he explained, “I don’t like to feel like a robot is doing all the work for me.”
Bernay also applies his attention to visual space in how he approaches each performance. “I try not to stay still in one place,” and added, “The most important part about live show photography is to know, if at all possible, where exactly are the photographers to be destined for each show.” Combatting the most obvious technical challenges—a subject in constant movement in equally unpredictable lighting conditions—involves a “silent battle,” to be positioned in the best place. And because photographers are typically limited to only shooting the first
“I LOVE TO WORK WITH EMPTY SPACES AND MINIMALISM IN COMPOSITION WITH MAINLY CONTRASTED BUT UNSATURATED COLORS, OR A STRONG CONTRAST IN BLACK AND WHITE.” Switching between Nikkors 50mm f2 and 200mm f4— Bernay’s favorites—or more often, his Nikon D300, which he exclaimed, “has more miles on it than a cab,” Bernay has managed to develop a distinctive style that combines manual focus, analog lenses, and DSLR bodies. And, perhaps most distinguishing of all, Bernay refuses to shoot with flash, referring to it as “extra lighting,” and reasons, “It contradicts the idea of a show. A live show is not just the artist, their music and sounds; it is also about the mood created with lighting. It is part of the entertainment. If you add flash you kill the atmosphere that was specially created for that moment.” Bernay describes the resulting aesthetic as, “noisy and a bit blurry, but realistic and magical.” In a word, Bernay’s images are textured, apparently informed by his background in art direction and production. As he explained, “I’m used to working with design theories. I love to work with empty spaces and minimalism in composition with mainly contrasted but unsaturated colors, or a strong contrast in black and white.”
RESOURCEMAGONLINE.com
three songs, the importance of locations becomes especially true whenever musicians dramatically begin their shows with a false start of lights and smoke, or an introduction theme before actually appearing on stage. But before Bernay can even compete for the best concert floor real estate, he must first face the greatest challenge, which also happens to be the most common: getting credentials. “Being a freelance photographer is very challenging in that sense, since you are not ‘press’ and you are not on an assignment for a specific media,” said Bernay. Keeping in mind that as far as security is concerned, photographers are the mosquitos of live performances, Bernay ultimately serves himself well by following his own advice, emphasizing subtlety and patience: “Don’t be afraid, just be respectful, act quickly and silently, and you will be fine!”
Your Vision “Apricot” by Ben Briand
vimeo.com/plus
SU B M IT NOW FOR YOU R CHANCE TO WI N http://resourcemagonline.com/edu2013contest/
Introducing the new mobile power pack - move1200L
9
t 0.1 = 1/8,500 s t 0.5 = 1/20,000 s
"Just the presence of the photographer can influence events. Approach the subject on tiptoe, even if it is a still life." â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Henri Cartier-Bresson
NOHO PRODUCTIONS
www.nohoproductions.com