WIP.CRACKER

Better than Arithmetic

2009-11-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

Several years ago, during my second portfolio build process, I had many pages that had two images side-by-side.

This made sense to me, primarily because I created these images at the same time, in the same project, to convey the same idea. The theme is consistent across both images. I sat with Thomas Broening to review the book, and, about all these pairings, he had this to say:

"When you put two images together, one plus one should equal three; all these are like, I don't know, one plus one equals 1.85."

As we talked about it, I began to just get a sense, a whiff, of the possibilities of combinations of images, and that I'd been looking at pairings in a very simplistic, dogmatic way. Which I'm sure I'm still doing, 'cos I'm kinda authoritarian that way. But still, it's nice to shoot for improvements.

So I'm rolling up my PDN Photo Annual submission candidates, and I've rearranged the Resolutions series I did early in the year. At that time, I'd conceived the images in threes, but I've taken the best images and recombined them into what are hopefully subtler, more effective combinations.

How do these work together? Is there synergy, or just repetition? Is there a visualistic, a thematic, a moodalistic, a formalistic connection? All four? None? Is there tension or harmony, or points of tension and harmony in each? Do obvious size disparities create story material or merely distract? Is it too direct, and if so, is it like a wake-up call or a punch-in-the gut?

Just trying to make 1+1=3.

Studio on Location, Part Two

2009-11-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

Track spikes have always fascinated me. They're so singular in purpose. Maybe that's why the designers go nuts, but it's hard to find a wallflower track spike.

For this shoe I wanted a stadium backdrop. I scouted various tracks: Stanford, Kezar, USF, SFSU, and City College was the best. They recently built themselves a new complex, with a track, a football field, a stadium, and a fitness center. It's really nice and really new.

Trying to get permission to shoot, I was getting nowhere talking to them on the phone, so I hopped on down there with my portfolio and my enthusiasm and had permission in short order (thanks Martha and Dan!).

Meanwhile, I planned my lighting setup at home.

Later that week, Emily Polar, Kim Olson, and I overloaded Emily's Subaru with gear. We set up the shoes on the track...

...and built a crazy looking lighting setup all around it, had a nice dinner, and waited for the ambient light to be right.

I think the obvious question here is why? Why not just shoot the background, then shoot the shoes, then composite. Especially since I've gone with this very dramatic, unrealistic lighting.

And the answer is: it just doesn't look right composited. Although I almost totally overpowered the ambient light on the shoes, there is still some ambient there. Also, there's an interaction with the edges of the shoes and the background that would take God-like knowledge to even know you'd need to replicate it.

Finally, there's the interaction between the object and the place and the crew and the day. And this is all-important and this cannot be faked.

I'll Teach You to Learn

2009-11-03T10:46:00.001-08:00

Working on a photo project, I ran into a need for a picture of fire. Since it was secondary to my photo project, I thought I'd look around for an existing picture, to save time.

I needed a picture of a flame on white, but I was unable to find what I was looking for, as there seems to be a lack of good flames on white: Google Images shows a sample of what's out there. Shooting on black and altering it in Photoshop doesn't look right, sometimes it really doesn't. Illustrating the flames from scratch is also off, somehow.

So, ok, I'm a talented studio photographer, I'll just do it myself. Flames on white.

I started by revisiting my adolescence: flaming WD-40. I quickly realized it's not as easy as I thought it would be. With strobe, on the left, and without, on the right. And yeah, there's fire in the left-hand picture.

I looked around for methods, found this tutorial, and gasoline seemed like a lot more fun than WD-40.

Shot on black, with gasoline, I realized I really like the flames frozen. Of course, to freeze it, I need a very fast shutter speed. If I wanted to get the flame frozen on a white background, I'd need a tremendous volume of light. On the left, a frozen torch flame, on the right, a fireball in an undesirable combination of motion blur and shallow depth-of-field.

Tried with Hasselblad and strobe, because the leaf shutter can sync at a higher speed, which looked pretty good, but still too much motion blur. Overly bright background on the left, good background on the right, but the flame is not frozen enough.

Hunter Freeman suggested daylight, which I tried in the back yard, with full sun and mirrors. Learned a lot more about explosion delivery methods and how to wrangle flame, which is so much faster than smoke and thus much harder to control. Since it's continuous light, sync speed is irrelevant, but the background on each of this is underexposed. But it's getting closer.

Tried the strobe delay method as described by Ian Hylands. It was so erratic it drove me crazy. But I did manage to freeze a flame on a whiter background. This revealed a new problem: the tiki torch flame I was using disappears against white. I tried shooting a fireball, but the delay method is so inconsistent, most of the frames were unusable. The flame in each of these pictures is about the same, it's just invisible against the white background, on the left.

Finally, I learned from Ralph Paonessa that the Canon system (5D, 380 EX, and IR transmitter) will support any sync speed, so I tried that. This method is much more reliable than the delay method, but I need a lot of 380 EXs to get the background white, and even. And a much more dense flame, like the gasoline fireball. Again, in each of these photos, the flame is about the same.

Through all this experimentation, I've discovered that what I really want is tack sharp frozen flames, deep, rich colors, with enough depth-of-field that most of the fireball is sharp, on a white background. And I know now what that should look like (hint: it doesn't look like flame shot on black and cut out).

It's turned into a kind of holy grail for me.

I'll continue refining these processes, but it's time to start wondering what to do with this material. Is it art? Embellishments to other images? Can I tie it into the smoke? Special effects?

After many hours experimenting in Photoshop, this is where I'm at (you should see it bigger). With the material I've shot thus far, it's better to use a grey background. For now, light grey is white enough for me.

Special thanks to Tim and Anne at ProCamera, Brian and Perry at Calumet, Ian Hylands, Hunter Freeman, and there's got to be somebody I'm forgetting.

Selected for the APA Something Personal Exhibition

2009-10-31T15:30:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to announce that one of my photos has been selected for the San Francisco APA Something Personal Exhibition.

Last years exhibition was a hoot - there were about 1500 hundred people there, which is a huge turnout. It was a great party and I hope that this year is as good.

New this year is the follow-on show at 645 Gallery. I'm eager to see how that turns out.

I submitted three of these fire images, about which I'll blog again tomorrow.

This is my favorite of the three; I'm a little surprised this is not the one selected.

This is the big winner. It certainly has charm, but I don't know why it was preferred over the others. Of course, I don't really know what to do with this flames on white work yet - it's mostly been a technical exercise thus far, and I haven't given much thought to purpose or message.

Entering these into a "personal" work contest is a bit of a stretch. It's "personal" in that nobody paid me to do it, but it's hard to say that this is some sort of exploration of my inner life. Although I do love shoes.

The aesthetic here certainly fits more with the "personal" work idea. I don't think these photos make much a statement, however. They're from a Propville Dog & Pony Show, which was fun.

As always, I'm happy to be in with the in crowd. I'm thinking maybe I'll wear a cape this year.

Studio on Location, Part One

2009-10-01T12:26:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been hating Photoshop...working in it, as well as looking at the results. There's so much bad compositing in the world, and even the good compositing is starting to look stale. Of course, compositing probably won't go away, and done well, it's compelling, particularly allowing depiction of something that's otherwise not possible (physically, not financially). It's pushed me to wonder if there's another way. And of course, there is! The way people did it in the old days. Five years ago.

Furthermore, I've been interested in doing the same kind of lighting, in the field, as I do in the studio. Of course this complicates things. In addition to the ordinary studio variables, add changing ambient light, wind, dust, passersby, permits, uneven surfaces, etc.

The thing that killed us on this one was hauling 200 pounds of gear 20 minutes up the trail. Much thanks to two local heroes - Clint and Michael, my assistants who schlepped gear, prevented a pair of dogs from running through the set, held flags, and were otherwise great.

APA Awards 2009

2009-09-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

Is it contest season already?

I've just submitted to the APA National Photo Competition. Wish me luck.

APA is using Photoshelter to handle the uploading and hosting, which is a great improvement over last year. Nevertheless, the submission process can be frustrating and always takes longer than I think it will.

I submitted three series.

Your Shoes Are Ready. Are You? (previously)

Building Nothing. (previously)

Resolutions (previously; full series)

I Hate Blogging

2009-09-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

Right now anyway. I heard recently:

"You can't think your way out of a writing block, but you can write your way out of a thinking block."*

And as usual, I find some thing that turns my creativity problem on it's head, and reminds me that however much my mind is convinced that it is in charge of creative endeavors, it is not.

I haven't been blocked photographically, for which I'm grateful. Just working on some projects that are taking a while. They're challenging and rewarding and when this particular promo is out, it will own.

So but this blog is supposed to be a kind of pastime, and yet as it's taken on a theme of sorts, I've found that theme at once kind of tiresome, and intimidating. At dinner, I said "I hate blogging.", and Jackie said "Write about that.", which is better than nothing.

And so, action, as always, the antidote to inertia. Which seems self-evident, right? Yet for the mind (my mind, at least), the action must be clearly, elegantly, cleverly, related to the particulars of the inertia. Yet in fact, any action at all will do.

The body can free the mind.

Meanwhile, I'm still occasionally photographing wedding gifts.

Thanks Rachel, for the blender. Jackie uses it all the time.

*I can't remember the source, and I've paraphrased it...

Compositing

2009-08-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to get away from single products on plain backgrounds. I love doing it, and it's a great way to glorify some object, but it's not so good at a more complex message. I finished a series on shoes recently. This first one required a fair amount of compositing.

There's compositing and then there's compositing. Personally, I think it's got pretty out of hand over the last two years, even when it's done well.

It seems that compositing, much like all Photoshop activity, is best when kept to a minimum. In the case of this shot, I'm mostly using it to hide photo equipment that has to be in the shot. In the old days, you could airbrush such things out, or come up with clever ways to hide them.

I could have poked a hole through the backs of the shoes and fed the strobe wires through, but there's no other place for these bounce cards to go. I could have finessed a couple of grid spots to illuminate only the sole of the shoe.

And sometimes it's easier to handhold something, than it is to spend 10 minutes rigging it.

HDR is the distortion pedal of modern photography. A little goes a long way. But it's usually easier to do a separate capture for the sky, whatever else I'm doing.

Another benefit is flexibility. I thought I might need an underglow on the shoes, so I made this capture. I didn't end up using it.

I tried to get the dog involved, but he's very black. Also, very intent on treats, when they're around. I have a lot of respect for actual animal wranglers - I'm certainly not one.

I always try to be sensible about it, though. The old "We'll fix it in Photoshop" has too often resulted in many extra hours of retouching, so I am constantly evaluating whether it'll be more efficient to handle it on set, or later. And outside of hiding photo equipment and bringing in skies, it's usually better to do it on set.

Goldsworthy's Spire

2009-05-28T21:29:00.001-07:00

Jackie and I were running on a trail in the Presidio a while back when we were surprised by this huge wooden spire that had appeared.

It was pretty startling, and then intriguing. Turns out it's a work by Andy Goldsworthy. I like his work, and even more so his attitude toward his work and his process.

I watched Rivers and Tides some time ago. I was most struck by a scene where Andy Goldsworthy is carefully stacking rocks. He builds them up to a certain level, but the rocks suddenly collapse into an indiscriminate pile. He hangs his head in frustration for a moment but then says "This is my work".

You can find Spire by entering the Presidio at the Arguello Gate. Make a right at the gate and follow the road down the hill. After maybe a quarter mile, you'll see on overlook on your right. Look left and you should see the spire.

It's a ways from downtown, but if you catch the 38 Geary from downtown, get off at Arguello, and walk north, up the hill, about six blocks. That'll put you at the Arguello gate. Cabbies might not know where the spire is, but they should know the gate.

If you feel like getting some golf in after, the Presidio Golf Club is a public course. Or you could head down to Clement St and get a bite to eat. Giorgio's Pizza, Burma Super Star, and the tiny sushi place that's between those two are all great places. Avoid the sushi boat place however.

Finally, it seems that Andy Goldsworthy has inspired some imitators near the spire:

Love and Hate

2009-05-18T19:57:00.001-07:00

I finished these shots quite some time ago - the red background ones are outtakes from the Resolutions project, and the blue ones were prompted by getting shoes as a Christmas gift.

I just pulled them out of my stack of work prints. I haaaaated the running shoe shots when I first finished them. I thought they were hokey and overly contrived. But I like them now. They're still kinda hokey, and I'm certainly ok with contrived, but some affection for them has appeared.

It's a strange process sometimes, the convolutions in the relationship between me and my photos. Some I love immediately, but the love fades over a couple weeks. Others I recognizes as technically great, but I hate whatever happened to the idea on it's way from my head to the paper. And there are some I have loved for a long, long time.

But in thinking about it I realize this is also true for the work of other photographers, and even movements or trends within photography. I loved the Jill Greenberg look when I first encountered it...now, not so much (although I still love the apes).

I suppose it's worth a look at what images have been extremely durable, to see what's there, what helps that to happen.

Tilt Annex

2009-04-05T21:41:00.001-07:00

Jackie and I saw a film at the Metreon recently, and wandered around there afterward. In the space that was once the Microsoft Store (I know!), and has since been a bajillion different things, there is this:

If you haven't guessed, those are all claw games. And, spookily, just claw games. It's an entire store space in the Metreon occupied by nothing but claw games.

And nothing, and no one, else. Jackie and I were the only people in there. Occasionally a machine would kick into attract mode - make some blips and flash some lights, but otherwise, it was eerily quiet.

Just a bunch of lonely stuffed animal prisons and us. This claw machine room appears to be an annex of Tilt, next door. I remember Tilt from way back, as the arcade with virtual bowling and a bar. I don't remember anything about claw machines.

Claw machines have always struck me as a bit sad; never more so when dozens of them are packed into some otherwise empty space. Until I'd watched the video linked above, I never had proof that they're rigged, but I always instinctively knew that. Jackie and I, uh, admired all the toys, but felt no interest in trying to get any.

Even the prizes are a little off - these Disney characters are monochrome.

And yes, that is a VW Bus-shaped claw machine!

Tilt and the Claw Machine Annex are in the Metreon, San Francisco's premiere kiddie mall. It's right near downtown and a bunch of hotels, so it might be worth breezing through if you have a hankering for low-grade stuffed animals. Chronicle Books has a little store on the first floor, which is a good place to spend some time, but otherwise, there's not much of interest in the Metreon.

Well, since they closed the Warhammer store. Now that was a place for social anthropology.

Shooting Nothing

2009-03-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

I worked with Art Director Adam Weisman, on a project for his portfolio. When he told me about his idea, I jumped at the chance to make some pictures about nothing. Well, space, really.

I like working with Adam a lot. He has a lot of energy, concise ideas, and he's really dedicated to faithful execution of them. We bounced some refinements off each other, and came up with a plan that included locations, props, and models. We shot these three images over two days, in the studio and on location.

It's interesting to start out talking about an idea, and to watch it to take shape as the project moves. Sometimes things that seem important early on wind up being trivial; for example, initially I thought we'd have to do the harvest shot in an orchard, because I was afraid the "harvest" idea wouldn't come through. As it turns out, it comes through fine with just a backyard lemon tree. On the other hand, we both thought from the beginning that the right props would be key, and I think that is true.

One thing learned is that it's often, counter intuitively, much faster to show someone something than it is to tell them. During shooting, when Adam would wonder what it might look like with pliers instead of solder, instead of talking about how it would look, it was much faster to rough it out and then talk about it. Similarly, we could have had a conversation about how much better the blue gloves would look than the tan gloves, or I could just switch them out. This is usually true for even large changes, like "What would this look like with completely different lighting?".

Flickr Surprise and Perhaps a New T-Shirt

2009-03-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

Re my earlier post about how Flickr doesn't have an economy, apparently it does. According to The Searcher:

"Ever come across a photo with dozens if not hundreds of comments, and they all have these little blinky "Best of Sparkly Award" graphics in them? "Diamond in the Rough!". "Flaming Sword of Awesome!!" etc etc. Well the reason for that is many people are members of Flickr groups that enforce strict "commenting" rules. To post to the group, you have to first comment on some other photos in the group, or favorite them, or give them award blinkies. It's an artificial "game" of false attention, almost all geared towards one thing: getting their photos on Explore."

I had wondered why so many mediocre photos had so many hyperbolic (and blinking) adulations in the comments.

But really I made this post to increase exposure for this awesome image.

Communications Arts Entry

2009-02-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

They say you have to spend money to make money. It's much easier to verify that first half than the second.
Here's to providence.

Pika Pika

2009-02-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Jackie and I went to Japantown recently. Japantown's always struck me as odd - there's a weird energy there, like it's built on an indian burial ground or something. It's nothing that really sticks with you, it's just a bit off.

But it has the Hi-Tech Car Air Freshener Store, a combination weird/awesome knife store, pretty good Udon at Mifune, and a dozen other japanese stores. Oh and now that Sundance has taken over the cinema and turned it into a cocktail-dinner-movie experience, the movies have gotten better.

But it also has Pika Pika.

This entire shop is devoted to insanely complicated japanese photo booths. It's in the corner and the outside is pretty nondescript - I'd never noticed it but it's been there awhile. Walking in results in slight disorientation because of all the graphical busy-ness, jpop music, and occasional shrieks of teenage girls.

Picking a booth turns out to be rather difficult. There are about a dozen, and they're all kind of overwhelming, not least because all the instructions are in japanese. In the end, I'm not so sure it matters which one you choose...

That's right. Eight bucks. Well worth it though. You put your money in and step inside. And then you panic. There's a shrill voice telling you what to do (in Japanese) and high strung girls on video showing you how to pose...and a countdown. You try to keep up and do something interesting.

After (5? 10? 30?) minutes, you've posed four to five times, encouraged to do some pretty bizarre things. But wait, you're not done. Go around to the side of the machine where you'll find a screen with a stylus - here you can customize your pictures with as many saccharine glittery effects as your little heart desires.

You end up with something like this. If we were in Japan, you could have the machine email the pictures to your mobile phone.

It's pretty easy to get to - straight shot West on Geary from downtown ($10 cab ride, 15 minute bus ride, and there's a parking garage). All in all, it's a slightly bizarre, highly entertaining afternoon in San Francisco, especially if it's raining.

Find Pika Pika on Yelp.

Lomography Workshop

2009-02-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

Teri Cundall over at Proville put on a Lomography Workshop recently. We were given a 35mm fisheye camera (with a flash even!) and a Diana toy camera, and some film, heard some pointers, looked at some examples, and were sent off to mess around.

It was a lot of fun. So very far from my usual way of working. I haven't shot on the street in a couple years. I haven't even shot off tripod much in the last couple years.

The results are starting to show up on Flickr.

Beyond Single Objects on Plain Backgrounds

2009-02-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

Much of what I did last year is single objects on plain backgrounds and I'm trying to push beyond that, not only because it feels too narrow (I mean, there's specializing, and then there's specializing), but because I want to work with complex ideas.

How complex? Not too...I mean this is just the idea that the shoes want to go running.

But working on this image reminded me of how I got on that single-object-on-plain-backgrounds track: it's cheap. Very cheap.

It's, uh, irritating that the year when I ought to start doing tests with larger budgets is the same year the economy falls all to pieces.

I believe in a world of limits

2009-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

"I believe in maniacs. I believe in type As. I believe that you've got to love your work so much that it is all you want to do. I believe you must betray your mistress for your work, you betray your wife for your work; I believe that she must betray you for her work. I believe that work is the one thing in the world that never betrays you, that lasts. If I were going to be a politician, if I were going to be a scientist, I would do it every day. I wouldn't wait for Monday. I don't believe in weekends."
- Richard Avedon

I attend a group with Lisa Wiseman, and we trade inspiration. Last time I pulled this quote from Avedon as my bit. I'm not going to disparage Richard Avedon, his career and his contributions to photography, but I've had a hard time with the betrayal part of this quote. After wrestling with it for a while, I've decided that this comes from a belief in scarcity, that the essence of the world is limited, and that you must decide between work and love, between yourself and others. Otherwise, the guy's just selfish (which is possible, what with the mistress, and considering his marital history and jeez, there seems to be a lot of betrayal going on).

I'm not convinced that this is an accurate description of the world.

But whatever. I needed to figure out what to do with this quote, and I wasn't having any ideas about photographs to make of it, so I decided to act out the quote. I committed to shooting as much as I could in order to get this project out the door in a timely fashion.

I'm no Richard Avedon, I'll tell you that. I tried to betray my fiancee by leaving the dirty dishes but it doesn't take that long, so I washed them anyway. I tried to betray the dog by not going running with him, but I needed to get out too. I did manage to shoot and retouch two of these per day for a week or so.

See the entire series.

I Got into the APA Something Personal Show

2008-11-05T10:17:00.001-08:00

I'm pleased and excited to note that these two images were selected for the APA Something Personal Show.

Last year I didn't get in. I talked to Thomas Broening about that, and he asked me how many images I submitted. I told him "One." He laughed.

This year I submitted eight.

There is an opening/holiday party on December 11th.

(Complete series)

Dyson Vacuums Ad

2008-10-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

In May, I volunteered at the San Francisco Portfolio Night. Portfolio Night is an around-the-world event that matches graduating art directors with established art directors. I volunteered to help because I thought I might be able to hook up with some budding art directors who need some of their ideas photographed.

I did in fact hook up with some. Cliff Seto is the first one that I've worked with. Cliff had an idea about shooting messes as crime scenes to advertise vacuum cleaners. We pulled this production off in a couple days - Cliff was in a hurry to get his portfolio finished so he could graduate, and I was in NYC when we started talking about it. I got a friend to loan me his house, stopped by my local pet groomer to pull dog hair from their vacuum cleaner, and Cliff got a plant. Darcy Rogers via NAOPA volunteered to assist and was super helpful.

I think the three of us got these pictures to about 90%. We really needed a stylist to go all the way, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to secure one, due to the compressed timeline (and styling budget of zero).

It was easier and harder than working without an art director. On the one hand, I had to interpret what Cliff was going for; on the other, in those moments when things stopped flowing, I could look to him for some guidance. Happily, Cliff is a good communicator, and I've learned some things to help that along (eg, asking for photographic examples, offering quick sketches).

The whole thing was a good experience - I like working on other peoples ideas. Next week I'll start shooting something with another art director from Portfolio Night.

Busyness

2008-10-09T15:57:00.001-07:00

All my mid- to long-term projects seem to keep getting interrupted by booking or by weddings and birthdays. Oh and self-promotion. I've been looking at Flickr, but haven't really been able to address any of that 'new photography' stuff.

I did manage to work this out today, with a stylist named Colleen Hartman.

Not only does Flickr make you smell better, it also makes you more attractive!

2008-10-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I wrote of my five year plan and how an assessment of Flickr, among other things, might be useful.

I signed up for Flickr around that time and uploaded my portfolio. Along the way, my photostream has sucked up the Animal Model Kits project and the Capsules thing I'm working on.

I found the upload process pretty annoying, at first. There is a tremendous volume of crap (photos, comments, tags, private/public 'special icon' comments) you can associate with your photos. Figuring out which colorspace to use has been annoying, and it's clear this is not for professionals; then again, some of the stuff that IS for professionals is usually way more poorly designed and implemented (eg, DPP at first). But you get used to it, and just because it's irritating doesn't mean it's useless.

Is it just another popularity contest? And if so, am I a snob?

Over the four months I've had a couple favorites and group invitations. I get a little sense of 'oh you picked me!' but then I look at the rest of the photos in the group and meh.

But I haven't really participated. What I've done is kind of like going to a party full of photo fans, and standing against the wall clutching your photo album. Except the party is at the Superdome and there are 84743965432564356748237 people there.

I used to hang out at this website called photosig, which is like Flickr only cruddier, and with a sort of economy, in that you must critique photographs to accumulate points so you can upload your own photographs. Most of the critiques were as follows "Beutiful cat, come chrck out my photos".

The system requires users to critique 10 photos for every photo I wanted to upload. I'd just finished a project in school, with eight photos in it, so I needed to critique 80 photos. I tried to select photos without cats, and that were at least trying to be artful; I also tried to be more, uh, critical, and gently point out aspects of the photograph that I thought were working and those that were not.

This was 4-and-a-half years ago; I was still in school, didn't have much of a style, hadn't learned much about lighting, and my ideas were really important to me. Actually, they still are...I guess what I mean to say is that I was really invested in the ideas. To make matters worse, I was secretly-yet-actively trying to get someone, anyone to tell me whether or not I was a photographer.

Into this swamp I put my precious new project. The first critique came in at about the 10 minute mark, and was fair, if not completely blown away by my insightful genius as I wanted.

About 15 minutes into it, however, a critique appeared that went something like this: Why are you posting these stupid pictures this is not an art site maybe you should go to artsig. You are a terrible person and you're wasting your time and everyone else's. I hate these pictures. Also, the light falloff on the right is annoying.

I was stunned. And then angry. I went and looked at his pictures. I wish I could say that they were awesome and he was right - but they were all humdrum pictures of his kids playing sports and some mall-level portraits of the same. I couldn't understand why he was critiquing them in the first place, much less why his critique was so hateful.

In the end, I sat on it for awhile, then, using the site's guidelines for critiquing, contacted an administrator and asked her if she would delete his comment, which she did. If I had to do it again, I would have left his comment there, but at the time, I need to do something, lash out with all the emotion I was feeling about it, and dashing off an email seemed to fit the bill (I guess.).

These days, I can handle criticism. In fact, I could handle it back then. But there's criticism, and then there's jackassery. In any case, I'm kinda glad Flickr has neither an economy, nor a culture, of critiquing. It's just for sharing photos and for being popular. Or not popular.

Play vs Work

2008-09-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned play vs work before, and talked about easy vs hard as well. In the few non-booked hours I've had recently I've been working on this photo.

These are roughs, as I'm not yet done.

It's not really where I want it yet. For example, I like the highlight situation on the left, and I sort of like it on the right, but I wanted to see what it looked like with more symmetry.

And so. Now with more symmetry. And yet, it's still not where I want it to be. But it's annoying because my worktime on this picture is so fractured.

When it gets frustrating like this, the voice that often gets loudest starts going "You can't get stumped like this on a job you have to be able to perform you won't be able to step away everything will be depending on you you can't choke like this".

And that's somewhat true. But there are some significant differences. I won't be alone, and it won't all be depending on me. And I will also be different, and I know this from my own experience. That little voice is always trying to protect me in this way, but it's very short-sighted and way too skeptical.

Thankfully, another voice says "What you need is a piece of plex that's two feet longer than this, and two short C-stands to rig it in an arc above the subject." And I realize that the next opportunity I have to get to Tap, I'll get that piece of plex and finish this photo.

Portfolio Revamp

2008-08-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of a trip to NYC (tomorrow!), I've redone my portfolio, over the last two weeks.

I say I've redone it, but it was really a group effort. I'm grateful that people are willing and interesting in giving feedback, since it seems it's impossible for a photographer to judge his own work with much accuracy.

Big thanks to Jamie Kripke, Thomas Broening, James Thomas, and Lisa Wiseman. Each of them helped me out in unique, invaluable ways.

And most of them said, about the first edit, that there were too many similar images. It's made me realize that, while I like to think/work in series, that recently my series have been really narrowly focussed. While the Octopus series is pretty variable within itself, the Smoke and the Bike Trophy series are very similar.

So I removed all but the best from each series. This has left my book pretty skinny, but at this early phase, I think I'm better off showing a smaller, tighter set of images, than a repetitious one.

Add to that all the printing, cutting, scoring, case-acquiring, promo material collecting, target acquisition and location, and it's been a busy couple of weeks.

So, we'll see how it goes!

Vote for me in the PIX Digital Imaging Contest

2008-08-22T15:54:00.001-07:00

I submitted to the Personal Work section of the PIX Digital Imaging Contest.

If you can figure out how to locate my images on the contest site, that is. The link below used to get to my images, but somehow, their site moves pictures around, perhaps randomly. Thanks PDN!

Stop by and vote for me if you have a chance!

That stuff's on my portfolio site as well of course.