Author Archives

Director of Photography, Rob Haggart.

Frank W. Ockenfels 3 Interview

Frank Ockenfels is the kind of photographer who does everything well. From his black and white to his color; from passport photos to 4 x 5; photographing men and photographing women; it’s all equally good. He’s also the kind of guy you throw a really difficult assignment to because with all the different films and [...]

Is The Printed Portfolio About To Evolve?

Wow, I like this idea over on Heather Morton Art Buyer (here). Your printed portfolio becomes a super creative promo that’s too expensive to leave behind and too impressive to ignore. Maybe it’s already happened. I’m out of that loop.

Dear Young Photo Assistant, here’s your health care

The Health Care Reform Bill that just passed the House of Representatives would ALLOW YOU TO STAY ON YOUR PARENTS HEALTH INSURANCE UNTIL YOU ARE 27! Am I yelling this, yes I am. This is great news for photographers and assistants.
via Greg Ceo Blog.

Clients From Hell

“Can you please remove the iStockPhoto watermark on the photos? I don’t think it adds anything visually.”

Funny website where designers submit client horror stories (here). Found it on SwissMiss. Where’s the photographer version?

nothing has fundamentally changed

People have two eyes, ears and one mouth, ten fingers and two feet. What different? The methods they use to express themselves and the calls on their attention. I urge you to run the other way if someone tries to tell you ‘people like free stuff’ is news. Did we not [...]

Perception Is Everything – For Photo Editors

One of the mistakes I made as a photo editor early on was copping a “can do” attitude when it came to finding photography or making assignments. I figured I would just work as hard as I could and the end result was what it was. The problem with this is nobody factors in the [...]

And here’s the dirty secret: it was easy

“Muhammad Ali made a hero out of every single journalist,” Leifer said. “Whether you were a writer, a photographer, a television commentator, you got to cover Ali and your boss thought you were a genius. The genius was really Ali.” Jordan was an equally photogenic subject for Iooss. “It was like traveling with a Biblical [...]

Perception Is Everything

I had several conversations last week with photographers about perception. The people doing the hiring arrive at an initial decision about you by factoring in something they think will happen based on their perception of you. I have no real insights into creating a perception about yourself other than there are many factors that go [...]

Closing The Gap Between Online And Offline Advertising

Online video represents only a small piece of the total advertising pie, but the growth in streaming ad revenue is becoming more of a threat to the broadcast medium that supplies most of the high CPM content. Hulu is a case in point, as Mediaweek and paidContent sources point out the ways the site’s ad [...]

the internet isn’t killing anything

If someone offers to give you half of a record company, take it. They may be shrinking, but they’re still big.
russell davies via kottke.org.

Slideluck Potshow NYC is Tonight

Info (here).

Looks like fun.
via, Worrell.

Newspapers aren’t doing as badly as you think

By the way, you can still make money publishing newspapers—even in a period when advertising has plummeted. Check out Gannett’s third-quarter earnings report. Its newspapers pulled in more than $100 million of operating income on revenues of $1.04 billion. In the first three quarters of 2009, advertising revenues were off 31.6 percent, but circulation revenues [...]

Todd Ruthven, AD, JWT Detroit, on automobile advertising

CGI has definitely found its place in advertising but has not and WILL NOT replace actual photography. I believe that nothing can replace the spontaneity and “happy accidents” that can occur while actually shooting something.
[...] When you make something too perfect you run the risk of making it look fake. Using CGI requires the [...]

Photographer iPhone Marketing Apps- Cutting Edge Promotion or Money Hole With A Fresh Coat of Paint?

I’m not surprised that the king of promotions (Monte Isom) was the first to come out with an iPhone app as a marketing piece (here). It usually pays to be the first so I’m sure it worked for him in the way that a well made mailer might and as a method for cutting through [...]

An Interview with Gerhard Steidl

In the past, I had to take my own humble photography to printers, and I was always shocked to see that the printers ruined the images. Originally, I wanted to simply see my own photos printed well, instead of being angry about bad reproductions all the time – for which I then also had to [...]

Monocle Magazine Video Report From Prix Pictet 2009

Fantastic video from Monocle. Interviews with Edgar Martins, Edward Burtynsky, Christopher Anderson and winner Nadav Kander.

Photographer Rights Activist Tests LA County Sheriff’s On Their Understanding Of The Law

Discarted a blog written by “photographers & concerned citizens living in Los Angeles. / With the goal to shoot photographs freely in public spaces wherever, whenever, of whoever. / And a desire to get the word out, educate and engage,” has video posted of an encounter with two LA County Sheriff deputies inside the Hollywood [...]

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It

[Brin] has an innocent faith in the Internet and inadequate knowledge about how books are published.
Ken Auletta, via  I Want Media talking about his new book on Google.