Pictures to Prove it™

lomographicsociety: The Self-Portrait Phenomenon We can’t deny...

davidscottholloway — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 01:00:01 -0400

The Self-Portrait Phenomenon

We can’t deny that the “self-portrait” has been gaining popularity recently. The position of photographer and the subject are blended together. Tseng Kwong-chi (1950-1990), a Chinese artist, is known for his self-portrait series in which he wore the same Chinese tunic and photographed himself infront of famous memorials.

Doug Menuez: The Zen of Film

davidscottholloway — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:23:41 -0500

Doug Menuez: The Zen of Film:

“Mulling it over, I couldn’t articulate it fully but definitely, I knew I had become lazy, really lazy. A spectacular sloth by the standards of shooting film. Film is hard. Film is a stone cold unforgiving killing bastard. Film is once in a lifetime, no excuses. F8 and really, really be there: ready, steady, in focus, correct exposure, and pressing the shutter in synch with life.” - D.M.

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative..."

davidscottholloway — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:17:05 -0500

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

- Ira Glass (via rstlne)

It is nice to be talked to this way, isn’t it………………..isn’t it…………

(via janealdridge)

Oh Ira. Xxoo

(via ohgodithurts)

i saw this video by Joachim Ladefoged a couple of months ago at...

davidscottholloway — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:51:09 -0500

i saw this video by Joachim Ladefoged a couple of months ago at VII and i just now noticed that it is posted online. this is probably the single most beautiful piece of video ever shot by a photographer. it may also be the most expensive. it was shot on the RED One.

badass.

btw, Sacha Goldeberger is pretty great.

davidscottholloway — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 01:35:03 -0500

btw, Sacha Goldeberger is pretty great.

these goats are awesome. I’m glad im not a goat.

davidscottholloway — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 23:59:00 -0400

these goats are awesome. I’m glad im not a goat.

Model Morphosis by NYT Mag.

davidscottholloway — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:37:00 -0400

Every once in awhile you stumble across a terribly simple, yet effective use of the internet. i stumbled across Model Morphosis on the NYT Mag blog today and i have no idea how i hadn’t seen this before. the images are very straight-forward, but the effect is interesting and fun.

check it all here.

one small step... for 5D filmmakers.

davidscottholloway — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:20:34 -0400

The beauty of footage made with DSLRs is only matched by the awkward designs of the cameras. These cameras were made to make still photos in the most traditional hand under the lens, hand on the grip and eye to the eyepiece sort of way. Now they have this wonderful capability of creating stunning video, but it requires you to hold the camera away from your body trying to focus using the live view. Simply put, it is not easy and it is not good.

But where there is a will there is a way and this need has captured the creative minds of dozens of companies looking to create useful products to fill this void. There are literally hundreds of third party products designed to make it easier to create great video using DSLRs. Out of all the seemingly endless products i think the Redrock Micro EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) will prove itself to be the one of the most useful (i haven’t gotten my hands on one yet).

The first time i saw Vincent Laforet with a decked out DSLR i thought he had gotten it all wrong. He had taken this tiny and amazing little video camera and made it into a monstrosity with every gadget attached. It was no longer svelt and mobile, it had become just like any other video camera. Soon after that i wound up shooting a music video with a couple of Canon 5D mkIIs decked out with Redrock rails, follow-focuses and external monitors. After just a few minutes of shooting with them i realized that i was wrong before; this equipment made the shooting nearly effortless, it solved problems and created new opportunities because it gave me the opportunity to use techniques i couldn’t without them.

The Redrock Micro EVF is the next big wave because what it does is provide a customizable monitor for viewing the footage as you shoot. Now you are no longer constrained to shooting handheld with your eye pressed up against an eyecup attached to the back of the camera. This gives shooters a comfortable shooting platform that is more natural and will mimic the feel a traditional video cameras with the possibility of using a shoulder rest and having the eyecup where your eye is, instead of craning over to focus. This is… umm… well, it’s great.

the "unconcerned" photographer

davidscottholloway — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:06:17 -0400

the "unconcerned" photographer:

A famous label of documentary photographers is “the concerned photographer.” fashion photo icon Mario Testino doesn’t sweat that.

Photographing the Invisible.

davidscottholloway — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:57:02 -0400

Photographing the Invisible.

Ami V. interview...

davidscottholloway — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:28:14 -0400

Ami V. interview...

Catherine Hall rocks the desert!

davidscottholloway — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 04:02:27 -0400

Catherine Hall rocks the desert!:

i believe in art in public spaces and Catherine Hall really went all out to put together this fabulous exhibit at Burning Man.

Newsweek Sold For $1

davidscottholloway — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:25:03 -0400

Here is another verbatim repost from “A Photo Editor.” i think he is writing about what i find interesting at the moment. His blog is always worth reading. thanks, d…

A new Post “Newsweek Sold for $1” was written on the August 3, 2010 at 11:30 am on “A Photo Editor.”

The Daily Beast is reporting that Sidney Harman–-a 91 year old billionaire who made his fortune partially as the Harman in Harman/Kardon-purchased the magazine from the Washington Post Co., yesterday for a dollar. They’ve also gotten their hands on the 66 page sales memo that was given to prospective buyers and paints a clearer picture of the debt he assumed as well:

| Revenue dropped 38 percent between 2007 and 2009, to $165 million.

| Newsweek’s negligible operating loss (not including certain

| pension and early retirement changes) of $3 million in 2007 turned

| into a bloodbath: the business lost $32 million in 2008 and $39.5

| million in 2009. Even after reducing headcount by 33 percent, and

| slashing the number of issues printed and distributed to readers

| each week, from 2.6 million to 1.5 million, the 2010 operating

| loss is still forecast at $20 million.

Dig deeper into the document and the numbers get worse. Newsweek lost money in all three of its core areas in 2008 and 2009: U.S. publishing, foreign publishing and digital. Even with the smaller guaranteed circulation, it still retains $40 million in subscription liabilities owed to readers. And then there’s Newsweek’s lease foibles: last year, it paid $13 million in rent, a startling figure for a company of its size.

More here. [1]

NY Magazine’s Daily Intel [2] does a little head scratching at the logic of buying the magazine without a way to shore up back office expenses by combining it with another magazine like the recent BusinessWeek purchase by Bloomberg [3].

It’s quite possible this will remain a pet project for the new owner and a radical turnaround is not in the cards, but wouldn’t it be awesome if he hired someone to implode the business model and find a new path. My previous back of the napkin calculations into running a magazine tell me that a very tiny percentage of the expenses are the actual content.

[For fun, here's what Newsweek had to say about the internet in

1995.] [4]

Links:

———

[1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-03/newsweek-losses-revealed/

[2] http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/08/newsweeks_finances_were_even_w.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[3] http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2009/10/bloomberg_wins.html

[4] http://www.newsweek.com/1995/02/26/the-internet-bah.html

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2010/08/03/newsweek-sold-for-1/

(i blame Newsweek photog Khue Bui. d…)

Who Will Marry Them?

davidscottholloway — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:45:03 -0400

Who Will Marry Them?

A Photo Editor: I believe we owe it to our children to tell them that the profession of ‘photojournalist’ no longer exists

davidscottholloway — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:41:00 -0400

(this is a verbatim copy of an email sent out to “A Photo Editor” readers. i didnt think i could add anything to it. d…)

A new Post “I believe we owe it to our children to tell them that the profession of ‘photojournalist’ no longer exists” was written on the August 2, 2010 at 11:33 am on “A Photo Editor”.

Searing commentary on the state of photojournalism by Neil Burgess, former head of Network Photographers and Magnum Photo, two time chairman of World Press Photo and owner of NB Pictures [1]. Read the whole thing on EPUK [2], but this tidbit should get you fired up:

| Seven British-based photographers won prizes at the ‘World Press

| Photo’ competition this year and not one of them was financed

| by a British news organisation. But this is not just a UK

| problem. Look at _TIME_ and _Newsweek_, they are a joke. I

| cannot imagine anyone buys them on the news-stand anymore. I

| suspect they only still exist because thousands of schools, and

| libraries and colleges around the world have forgotten to cancel

| their subscriptions. Even though they have some great names in

| photojournalism on their mastheads, when did you last see a

| photo-essay of any significance in these news magazines?

via [3]

This doom and gloom on the state of photography/magazines/newspaper is all good blog fodder, but the takeaway for me has always been that publishers are in hiding and any path to the future will be forged by people who don’t work for them. Financing of accountability journalism by non profits is a solution that’s been talked about by Clay Shirky (here [4]) and it appears that most of the significant work will come this way for the time being (based on that stat Neil gives about World Press).

Links:

———

[1] http://www.epuk.org/Opinion/961/for-gods-sake-somebody-call-it

[2] http://www.epuk.org/Opinion/961/for-gods-sake-somebody-call-it

[3] http://twitter.com/briansmithphoto

[4] http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/09/clay-shirky-let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom-to-replace-newspapers-dont-build-a-paywall-around-a-public-good/

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2010/08/02/i-believe-we-owe-it-to-our-children-to-tell-them-that-the-profession-of-%e2%80%98photojournalist%e2%80%99-no-longer-exists/

Stephen Voss's Shades of Gray

davidscottholloway — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:47:38 -0400

Stephen Voss's Shades of Gray:

Stephen Voss’s medium format images from the Gulf Coast are some of the more interesting images ive seen come out of the region. his camera was doused with water and i think that was the universe giving him a little gift that gave a little edge to his images.

kudos voss. these are good.

he also has a collection of oil soaks details, evidence if you will, which you can see here…

100 Abandoned Houses

davidscottholloway — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:22:14 -0400

100 Abandoned Houses

Video

davidscottholloway — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:37:00 -0400

The Problem with "Airbrushing" Kim Kardashian

davidscottholloway — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:20:00 -0400

things like this make me happy i dont make flattering photos anyways…

“Complex magazine has a photoshoot with Kim Kardashian coming up andAnimal New York has a before and after airbrushing shot from the spread,

Now, it’s tempting to look at this, say “so what,” and just move on — but, the practice of airbrushing women in magazines actually has real ramifications.

Take this pic of Kim Kardashian, for example. Opinions do vary — and that’s not a particularly flattering pic of her — but I think Kim Kardashian is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.

Yet, in that pic they made her hips a little smaller, her skin tone more uniform, and her breasts, more symmetrical.

Now imagine you’re the average woman trying to compete with that. You’re not even competing with a stunningly attractive woman: you’re competing with an idealized version of a stunningly attractive woman. How much damage must it do to even gorgeous women to see these images and know that they can’t possibly measure up to the women they see in these magazines?”

[read the whole post here]

Pictage acquires ShootQ

davidscottholloway — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:13:00 -0400

Pictage acquires ShootQ