Alfred Stiglitz and Fear of Change

Alfred StiglitzI recently got the opportunity while I was in NYC to attend an exhibit and the metropolitan museum of art and chronicled three of the Most influential american photographers ever, Alfred Stiglitz, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand.  The exhibit is up until mid April so if you are in New York go see it.  I was already familiar with the work of these photographers and have enjoyed the work of Edward Steichen in particular for some time.  But I learned a few things about Stiglitz that started me down the path of an idea, not a new one by any means, but a meaningful one none the less. The only thing constant in the world is change.  This concept holds true throughout history and has only accelerated in our world of instant access to any information we want, including videos of dogs riding on skateboards.  Again the holds true to our world, but sometimes it fails to work that way on an individual basis. Among photographers it is common to hear that the changes happening in our industry scare them.  The fear of such a change becomes a catalyst of some sort of action.  Some push back, some give up and others try to changes the way they do things.  This this type of upheaval is not new.  In the late 19th century through the efforts of people like George Eastman, photography became a safer and less cumbersome process.  More and more people started to experiment with this exciting new way to make images.  Among these was the aforemetioned Alfred Stieglitz, a man who would become one of the most influential men in the history of photography.  Stieglitz embraced photography with a zeal unrivaled by his peers.  He helped found the New York Camera Club and turn it's newsletter into the most widely known photography publication in the world. Stieglitz had a few defining events that influenced who he was, two of them being the photo-sesesionist movement that was going on in germany and his mentorship and friendship with Edward Steichen.  Steichen, a painter turned photographer, and a great effect on Stieglitz.  The work done by Steichen convinced Stieglitz that photography could ravel painting as a form of artistic expression.  He started to change the work he was showing in Camera Notes, the publication put out by the New York Camera Club.  He even displayed work that was not from members of the club.  The club didn't not like the editorial direction that Stieglitz was pulling the club.  They began to push bag and shortly there after Stieglitz resigned from the club sighting editorial conflict as the reason for leaving. Was this the end of Stieglitz's influence in the art world?  No, he soon opened a gallery and started a publication, Camera Work, that quickly over shadowed Camera Notes.  He continued permoting fellow photographers such and Steichen and Strand. But most importantly he saw outside of the photographic world and took a young artist under his wing by the name of Goergia O'Kiefe, who he latter married. How did one man have such a profound effect on the world of art?  I don't have an answer to that question, but Stieglitz was a man who was not afraid to change and reinvent himself when the world change around him.  He changed his photographic style three times through out his career.  When he found inspiration, he followed it.  I conjecture that he did not let things like fear and popular trends dictate how he created his work. This man of photographic history should inspire us to not fear change but inspire us to find things that enhance your artistic and photographic vision.

Breaking out of the Box

Being a photographer and running a business sometimes make strange bedfellows. The business end has certain requirements that don't exactly jive with what a photographer wants. The business puts a photographer in a Box that contains a well-defined vision to show to the world so those around the photograph can understand exactly who the photographer is and where they can use him/her. While this is a very sound business practice that makes a cohesive marketing plan possible, if these self-imposed constraints are left unchecked this can develop into a cancer that can destroy that very photographer’s soul.

Dramatic? Maybe a bit, but this is a real issue for many photographers out there. The danger is that if you limit what you do for the sake of your business you will never grow as a photographer and artist. I have found myself sliding towards this fate of late. So I decided to take action.

Step One: Find inspiration that is nothing close to your Branded Vision.

I love the color field artists like Hans Hofman and Barnett Newman. I love seeing things broken down to there most basic forms and focusing on color and shape. I believe the more simple and basic form of visual expression can in many cases be the most powerful.

Step Two: Break out of the Box

Here comes the doing part. For me it was to find a way to create work like the Color Field artist with my camera.  I made a plan, did some experimenting and started creating images unlike any I have done before.

Elegant Soda

7up with LimeSometimes we get caught up in what things are suppose to be.  Photographs of soft drinks are suppose to be dramatic and colorful.  I wanted to so something all more elegant.

And as an artist it is important to do things that don't always follow the norms.  That is where inspiration and artistic evolution comes from.

Photograph it Cold and Quick

Photograph of Frozen YogurtI recently did a fun photo shoot for a new frozen yogurt and smoothie shop in the Southglenn Mall.  Working with things that are cold is always a challenge in which you have to a quick trigger finger.  

We went through alot of frozen yogurt and yes we attempted to eat it all. (we didn't accomplish that task)

The Smoothie image did go smoothly (yes pun was intended and I apologize for that) 

Photo of a smoothie

Why I love this Industry

The video by Leo Laporte over at TWIT is the reason I love what I do.  There is so many interesting ideas and fun problems so solve.  I don't shoot video, but the production of a photo shoot is similar.   I found the video via Chase Jarvis.

How the Apple iPad could be useful to the professional photographer

The idea of a tablet computer has interested me for a few years now. But I have always felt that up until this point they were computers with a touch screens.  The tablet functionality always seemed secondary on all these past attempts.  I was excited to see what apple would come up with because I have been using the iPod Touch and a tablet computer for the past few years.  While I feel apple has not lived up to expectations on creating the revilutionary device that would end world hunger, I feel with a few good app developers this could become a very useful tool to the professional photographer.

I have a few Ideas on how this may be accomplished.

1. Camera tether without other computer: On the IPhone there is already an app call DSLR Remote that allows you to tether your camera to your computer and control your camera. If you could do the same thing without the computer I would be a very happy man.  In conjunction with the camera connection kit that you can buy for the iPad this might be possible.

2. Rethink the sourcebook: I feel that the source book could be reimagened by taking the best of printed and web versions and make a kind of hybrid sourcebook.  It could be more easily updated like the website and have a few interactive features while having a page layout that allows better viewing of the images.

3. Photoshop compainion program:  Many photoshop user use two monitors.  It's a nice pace to put tool pallets and see a full view of the image while working at 100 percent.  The iPad could easily fill these functions and more.  It could also be a small wacom like monitor in witch you could do simple masking and dodging and burning.  

4. On the go image manipulation and publishing:  There are a whole slew of iPhone apps that very easily let you do simple image alterations and publish them to sites like twitter, facebook or blogs from the small device.  This could be taken to the next level.  I'm not saying that we put the desktop version of photoshop on this thing, but the possibilities that this device could facilitate interesting imaging apps are exiting.

5. Distribute a well designed paperless portfolio book:  Websites have greatly changed the landscape on how people view portfolios.  But websites have there limitations, that is why I still have a rather expensive printed portfolio.  With this It may be possible to make something that builds on the experience of both the interactivity and ease of updating of web and the beauty of a printed book.  And to be able to distribute this through ether the app store or the new ibooks store would make it easy to get it into the hands of your clients.

6. Save the publishing industry from the world of web design: Websites have lots of advantages, but they are mostly ugly and don't work well for articles of a decent length.  Also the size of images that go with the articles make me sad.  This could be changed by opening up the layout possibilities to fix these two problems.

Photo A Day Weekly Round-up

The first full week is done, and the project is evolving.  And what is it evolving into, a book I hope.  So here is the lowdown, every week there will be seven images.  Every year there are 52 weeks.  So other then stating the obvious that means that there would be way to many images to put in one book.  To remedy this I am going to pick the best image that week.  This is where you come in.  You will pick that image every week through a poll.  The winner each week will end up in the final book.  So get out and do your civic duty and vote. (at the bottom of the page)

Now on to the images...

September 27, 2009

 

September 28, 2009

September 29, 2009

September 30, 2009

October 1, 2009

October 2, 2009

October 3, 2009

Software Tools for the Professional Photographer I Would Die Without

Well maybe I wouldn't die, but as a professional photographer that moves around a lot, studio, on-location, travel, and home my needs are complicated.  These tools help me get things done.

Online Tools

Freshbooks - Online estaminets and invoicing that work great.  It will help you manage clients, organize, receive payments, and sending the invoice.  They will even mail it for you.

Squarespace - I must say you have to check these guys out to understand how much I love them.  They have really made something outstanding.  They made my dream of an easily updatable website come true.  It's perfect for the creative that understands enough about making websites to get themselves into trouble.

SlideShowPro - I use this in tandem with Squarespace.  If you use SlideShowPro with SlideShowPro Director you get a Livebooks like gallery feature for a faction of the price.

Google Calendar - A calendar with multiple users is a must to manage the studio calendar in a shared space.

Google Voice - Imagine one phone number that you can forward to any phone or multiple phones, that is what google voice can do.  I love it.

Google Reader - It's sometimes hard to keep up with industry news.  Google reader brings it all under one roof and makes it easy to scan for the important stuff.  

Iphone - or ipod touch in my case

DSLR Camera Remote - Remotely control your camera and tether to Lightroom with this nifty app.  When I found this little guy a wanted to kiss someone I was so happy.

MiniBooks - A iphone interface for freshbooks.  It lets you make estaminets and invoices on the fly.

Tweetie - The twitter client I use.  It works great.  Handles multiple accounts if needed.  Really nice interface. 

The Weather Channel - I need to know the weather if I'm shooting on location.

PushGmail - Push notifications for gmail and loads the gmail mobile interface with out having to enter your password.  I like the gmail interface a lot more then the iphone mail app.

Desktop Tools

Lightroom - It keeps me out of photoshop, and that saves me a lot of time.  It controls my workflow from capture to output.  It makes my life as a photographer much easier.

Export Plugins for Lightroom - I use several export plugins for lightroom.  Not sexy, but useful.  You can find them for various uses.  Two I like are LR2/Mogrify (borders and watermarks) and LR2Twitpic. (Send photos to twitter)

Photoshop - I really don't need to say anything about this one.

Quicksilver - This app can do a lot if you get to know it.  It lets you do things in a strange and a whole new way.  Merlin Man has some good examples on how to use it.  I use it as a system search and an application launcher.

Hazel - This one is a bit hard to wrap your head around.  You make rules and it does things to files the follow your rules.  It works kind of like itunes smart playlists.  I use it to make multiple backups during a photoshoot without doing anything on my part.