It's a major award!

I try to tell my fellow photo professors and students that film is dead, digital photography is now 20 years old and the only reason to shoot film today is because you like to.

My good friend Bernard was a master welder before he had to leave that job and took over running the Power Art building where I teach. I tell him often that if he ever was fired I would quit teaching at my University. He knows most of my classes so well that when I am not there, I can trust him to help out the students. 

Bernard gave me this "put a nail in it" award (it's a major award ala Christmas Story) to celebrate my often spoken line "film is dead".

Thank you Bernard. The welds are beautiful, the design is thoughtful and the thought is oh so much appreciated.

Thanks!

Love what you do

Worldwide Photo Walk local winner 2013

Imagine a job where you look forward to going to work every day, a job where you wake up happy each morning as you head out to work. Photography has been this kind of job for me for the last 41 years. My first job was was to shoot a Caterpillar warehouse. My client was a friend and just about every job since has been done for clients who are friends.

Caterpillar Warehouse 1972

Maybe that's the key to loving a job: Go play with friends and get paid at the same time. My last job was for Nick at Distinctive Sweets. Another friend who gives me money to shoot. 

PeanutButter Lava Cake 2013

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Confucius

I have personally found this quote to be true.

When you rent studios to shoot for big clients you need to bring everything to the location that you just might need. In this economy we rarely have assistants to run out and pick up forgotten items. This Big Red Nabisco Crate travels with me on the photo-gurney and has saved me many times. 

Here is all it holds:

Here it is sitting strapped to the gurney:

While some of the things in the the Big Red Crate are used on a regular basis, fill cards and mirrors come to mind, some have been a special savior for a special time. For instance; as I walked into a rental studio in New Jersey just after super storm Sandy, the power went out. Total darkness for over an hour. The LED flashlight was right there so I had light for my food stylist to unpack while we waited for the power repairs. Wire ties have been extra handy shooting outside on location to secure wires and weights against the wind. I was on location shooting fashion in a very expensive house. I put the light bank up high on a stand and when I took it down, the location scout was terrified to see black marks on the white ceiling! Magic Eraser to the rescue. A few wipes, a little scrubbing and the marks were gone and a pristine white ceiling remained. 

I guess the Big Red Crate is just filled with all the little crazy things I've come to realize I sometimes need when I shoot.

You can download the list here: PDF List Download

Hey, it's just this photographer's experience talking.

80 MP Hasselblad 500C

I've got to re-shoot the grocery cart image for Nestle.

They told me the last time that it was going to be a print on the wall so I shot it with my trusty D700. One week after the shoot they told me the print would be 6' high. They also changed the layout so that my original image would have to be severely cropped. There was just no way it would work. For the reshoot I rented a Leaf Aptus 80 MP digital back. I think it's cool that I am mounting it on my 42 year old Hasselblad 500 C. It's so old it's not even a CM and definitely not a 503. Both the 50mm lens (seen here) and the 80mm are super sharp with this back at f/16. The shoot is set for tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Propping by iPod

I don't normally prop or food style but this job was sort of a test to get a product into Costco. My fee was the same but to save some money my client asked me to prop and buy groceries for the shot.This is the first time I have ever propped in this way. My wife (a former prop stylist) and I went to Macy's and Bloomingdales to find chip/dip dishes. Oddly enough, this being so close to the Superbowl, there were none. We did find a larges number of small bowls (to make the product look larger) and plate combinations that we liked. Instead of buying them I just took pictures of them with my little iPod Touch and sent them to the client. They picked three out of 21 and a few days later we just bought those three sets. It all seemed to go so much easier this way. And anything that makes life easier is okay by me.

September was crazy!

Yes, September was crazy. I spent last month on location shooting jewelry during the day and then had to speed home to shoot for Nestle as well as my beloved cheese clients. Oh - and I had to teach college two nights a week as well.

This is what I tell my students: "Freelance photographers are either crazy busy or crazy bored. So all of the time we are just plain crazy". 

It's all fun but nuts. I was also on location last month in Tarrytown NY shooting some very cool Tiffany antiques.

I was amazed at the breadth of items that Tiffany had made. I was accustomed to the stained glass lamps but I shot images of bookends and ink wells among others things. This job was an education in itself.

Too much fun and money too! Hard to beat.

Mirrored Aviator Glasses

Well, as I wrote before, I hit NYC in the mid 70's. I had many patient friends there but that only went so far. I was basically an upstate boy transplanted to the big city and I was more than willing to stop and talk to each and every Moonie, Scientologist or homeless person that would stop me. This would greatly slow the progress of our group and they soon grew tired of me being left behind. I really had no idea why everybody would pick me to pour their lives out to. A friend suggested that perhaps the fact that I looked people in the eye was the key to my "popularity". Apparently, New Yorkers look straight ahead, not right or left and certainly not in anyone else's eyes. My friend was proven to be correct and this was shown to be true after I purchased a pair of "70's correct" mirrored aviator sunglasses. I slipped those babies on and low & behold, no stranger ever again stopped me to talk. The sad thing is, that after a year or so, I didn't really need the sunglasses anymore. I had become a true New Yorker and could walk down the street intent upon my destination, looking no one in the eye.........