a fashion shooter

In my closet full of stuff I came across the this sketch. It was created by the prop stylist Reynaldo Davis Carter as we were brainstorming about props for an olympics-themed editorial shoot. Though they are not elaborate in any way, I loved the sketches right away. They somehow convinced me that he was serious about the project, that he was artistic and not cutting corners and had some old-school training – which I miss. As a busy commercial photographer, I literally hadn’t seen sketches from anyone in years. Of course this got me thinking about the hundreds of times I am approached by art directors, creative directors, producers, etc – with some other photographers work torn from a magazine. And I am effectively asked to copy the work, be it the lighting, camera angles, etc. Or sometimes it’s wholesale copying which I am asked to do. And i know I am not alone here. I hear other photographers saying the same thing all the time.

Yes, I understand the concept of Not Reinventing the Wheel every week, and I also understand budget constraints dictate that time is of the essence and whatnot. However, wouldn’t it be refreshing to get some real brainstorming with actual idea creation every now and then? That would be lovely. And maybe the newsstand would not be such a monotonous place to sip your latte.

Any thoughts?

This new app developed by Microsoft and Le Book looks very, very cool. Use your phone to scan the code at the bottom of the page, a web page opens up showcasing the photographers work, with links to his/her personal web site and what ever else they want. “Acting as a filter, bookmark and bridge.” I see this as a big time saver and a great way to add value to their already amazing fashion industry bible Le Book.

English LeBook Tutorial from LE BOOK on Vimeo.

Ok, just so you all know I am not a one-trick pony, i thought I’d post some of my ‘other’ work. And it’s good. Most of these were recently shot with Laurent Lanneau, who was the chef for the French Ambassador for the United Nations in NY at the time.

In New York it is very difficult to be taken seriously in fashion if you admit to shooting anything other than fashion. If so, people think you must be scatter brained, unfocused, unsure. For the most part NY is a very specialized photography  market – people expect you to do one thing only. But I am fearless, so here goes

Dublin’s People: Canon 7d 24p from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Thought I’d follow up on the story I posted some time ago about Annie’s financial troubles. Of course everyone wonders how a photographer who earns six figures per day, and seems to shoot eight days a week, ends up in the hole?!? There was a while where some believed that her troubles began due to her inheritance of property from Susan Sontag. As it looks now, Annie acquired very little from Susan – and nothing of any monetary value. It’s now widely believed that Annie’s financial problems stem from nothing more than extreme financial recklessness.

“On Friday, October 11, 2002, Kellum was busy coordinating Sarah’s [Annie's daughter] first birthday party, scheduled for the next day in Rhinebeck. The plans included a petting zoo and performances by hipster kiddie singer Dan Zanes and country singer Rosanne Cash, who was being flown in to sing Sarah’s favorite lullaby.”
The rest of the NY Mag story can be found here.

While her more commercial work is not always my cup of tea, I find a lot of it to be simply amazing. I will point to some of her works which I love here, here, here, and here.

Here are a few video clips…

The second workshop went well. Here is one of the resulting images. More to come…(Canon 5D Mark II, 50mm lens, daylight, handheld)

OK, so the first workshop was yesterday and it was awesome. (More about that later.) During it I was on the fringes taking photos with my cell phone (the Palm Pre,) and here are a few of them. Some of the below are taken with the phone directly, an some are cell phone shots of my computer monitor showing images taken with the 5D2 and Sigma 50mm…

After reading this article I started thinking more about my cell phones…

I recenly decided it was time to get a new phone. My BlackBerry Curve was showing its age, and I wanted a larger screen for viewing photos, and more speed. iPhone was not an option as everyone I know complains about the AT&T service, so I went out on a limb and bought the Palm Pre. Hardware feels a little flimsy, but WebOS sure is cool. Gorgeous screen, and apparently decent multitasking, so why not give it a go for the 30 day trial period, right? Used it on Cape Cod and upstate NY with no issues in terms of call quality or data throughput. Still, it didn’t seem particularly more useful than my BB.

Then I was walking around in NYC today putting the final details together for a shoot when the two models suddenly dropped out! (their agency has an annual shoot of their entire roster of girls and it had been moved to our shoot day.) F*ck. Now I was nowhere near my computer and suddenly had tons of work to get done. So I commenced to emailing and texting the art director, another photographer, three modeling agencies, insurance company for certificate of liability to be faxed, etc., etc. And sending links to my web sites, copying and pasting bits and pieces from various correspondences, PDFs, and on and on. All this while walking around lower manhattan. At some point I realized that I was getting all this done so quickly and easily, and had not panicked and rushed home to the comfort of my desktop. I was most amazed that I had not even felt the need to do so.

While the Pre’s keyboard is indeed small, the ability to flip between open apps really makes a huge difference, and gives you more of a desktop computer experience and less of a “I am limping along on my cell phone” experience. The BlackBerry has this capacity to some extent but it feels less fluid – more disjointed I guess.

While I am not yet 100% committed to the Pre, it does strike me as a very useful communication tool for the photographer who is out on assignment and may need to email, text, call, send documents and photos all at once without exiting and restarting each of these apps as s/he goes. I really expected to be making excuses this day, saying things like “I’ll send that to you when I get home” or “I’ll look at that when I am at my desk…) But I didnt’ have to. After 3 weeks of use, I am giving the Pre a thumbs up. It really made a heavy work load very managable when push came to shove while I was “on the road.”

(I’ve never been compelled to write about a phone before, but in this case I guess it’s appropriate. I actually wrote this entire article on the Pre)