Although Dane Sanders is a wedding photographer, his introspective Fast Track Photographer coaching method is applicable to just about any style of shooter. I’m an adventure guy, and I found it to be an incredibly useful and inspiring resource for coming up with new business ideas. (Read my personal analysis here.)
I caught Dane after his PhotoPlus Expo business and career seminar and asked him what brief bit of advice he’d give to working photographers. Here’s his answer above.
I was recently given the opportunity to chat with RC Concepcion, a photographer and Content Developer for Kelby Media Group. In this interview, RC talks about his new book, Get Your Photography on the Web, and how he became involved with NAPP. He also offers advice to those who are trying to get their photography noticed. [click to continue…]
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High end retoucher Carrie Beene is ready to share her enviable expertise with the world.
The busy New Yorker, who counts Sports Illustrated, Vogue, The New York Times and Vanity Fair among her clients, walks through her “arsenal of Photoshop tricks” and reveals never-before-published retouching secrets in her new book, Real Retouching: The Professional Step by Step Guide.
She took a few minutes away from her computer screen to speak with us about her coming book, her work, and the retouching industry. [click to continue…]
Chase Jarvis was chilling at the Polaroid lounge at CES when I got the opportunity to hit him up with a few questions. He recently teamed up with the establish brand alongside Lady Gaga to be part of their creative team. Chase has propelled himself to photographer super stardom. I really admire the way he has put together an amazing team and built himself into a brand name. I truly believe that this is the new way for creative professionals to present themselves to potential clients. Letting your work speak for itself, is simply not enough. In today’s super competitive world we must do something to set ourselves apart from the pack. Chase Jarvis and company have done this perfectly. They have managed to retain a personal feel to everything they do, which is a key element in today’s impersonal world, a philosophy that has resonated soundly for me personally.
I’ve never been afraid to show both the good and bad work that I have done. In a way, it shows growth. I would attribute my own personal success to this. In today’s world, it’s important to connect with potential clients. Putting myself on camera is my way of doing it. I will admit that it is not nearly as much fun as being behind the camera but I felt that it was worth the risk in order to get the information out to my viewers. It eventually snowballed into a mass number of informational videos. We are shooting an average of twenty videos a month and while most of them are crap, every once in a while we hit the sweet spot. I am not suggesting that this is the only path to success. However, the market is still rapidly moving into a hybrid of Motion and Stills. This process has given us the opportunity to shoot almost every day of the week. In the course of doing it, we have learned much about the craft and about ourselves, something that cannot be learned by sitting at a desk. So, heed Chase’s words and get off your ass and away from your computer and go “Shoot More Pictures!”
Chase Jarvis is one of the most successful photographers in the world. He has been able to bridge the gap between still and motion photography with ease. His ability to connect with his viewers and share information has become the model for many people in the industry. I got the chance to hit him up with a few questions at the launch party for his new book Seattle 100 at The Ace Hotel in New York in the days leading up to the PhotoPlus Expo.
Chase only had a few minutes to give me for this interview so we had to take what we could get. The audio is not the greatest, however the information is there and I hope you get a little bit of his magic from this video. He is very passionate about photography and art expression. His “Best Camera” App and Best Camera Website is based on the premise that whichever camera you happen to have with you at the time is the best camera for you at that moment. Simply put, get off your ass and shoot something. He has also done a killer job of branding and marketing his entire crew – a selfless act that many people in the industry ignore. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort.
Chase is one of the few people out there willing to share his process. His willingness to take the time to break down a shoot presents a great way to learn about the process of both still and motion photography. There are no longer any secrets to this movie magic. This new way to share information is the future of content creation. We no longer live in a world that does not move.
Operation IMPACT is an annual NYPD program that takes the youngest, most untested officers in the department and sends them to the most violent and dangerous neighborhoods of New York City for a crash course in becoming a policeman. The Photoletariat had the chance to hear from photographer and former NYPD Police Officer Antonio Bolfo. Having gone through the Operation IMPACT program himself, Bolfo decided to photograph one group of rookie IMPACT officers in the South Bronx.
The Photoletariat: What were you doing before you became a photographer?
Antonio Bolfo: I went to Rhode Island School of Design and was traditionally trained in drawing, painting, and sculpting. I ended up majoring in Film and Animation and went on to become senior animator at Harmonix, the videogame development company that created the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. I worked there for 4 years until I was tired of the corporate art world. Since I spent my whole life doing art, I decided to take a drastically different path and joined the New York City Police Department. I was assigned to the South Bronx Housing Projects and patrolled there as a beat cop for a couple of years until I was accepted into the ICP photojournalism school.
TP: Which photographers have influenced you? [click to continue…]
A tried and true gag on any given film set is to send the new camera assistant looking for a T-Stop. This Snipe Hunt will end up with the cameraman pointing to the T-Stops on the lens and everyone having a good laugh. There is a difference, if only slight. Here is a little Quick Take on this topic.
Zeiss has released the new Compact Prime CP.2 cinema lenses in Nikon, Canon EF and PL (Positive Lock) mounts. They are labeled in T-Stops and seemed to be a bit slower than their still camera predecessors. This is due to the difference between an F-Stop and a T-stop. I got the chance to ask Carl Zeiss, USA National Sales Manager Richard Schleuning to explain the difference between F-Stops and T-Stops. He does a great job of simplifying this concept. The f-number or focal ratio, better known as F-Stop, is a mathematical equation based on the physical size of the front element and the focal length of the lens. Here is the Wikipedia definition of F-Stop.
“In optics, the f-number (sometimes called focal ratio, f-ratio, f-stop, or relative aperture [1]) of an optical system expresses the diameter of the entrance pupil in terms of the focal length of the lens; in simpler terms, the f-number is the focal length divided by the “effective” aperture diameter. It is a dimensionless number that is a quantitative measure of lens speed, an important concept in photography.”
For example a 100mm lens with a 25mm front element will have a maximum aperture of F4. The same way a 200mm lens with a 50mm front element will have the same maximum aperture of f4. This should help to explain why faster lenses have a much larger front element than slower lenses. The “Stop” part of this equation is just a way to fractionalize the values by either half or double. In most cases the stop will represent a double in value as we move up or down the f-stop scale. That is why a full stop increment can be represented by the values of f1.4 and f2.0. According to the f-stop equation an f2.0 is actually double the amount or one full stop from an f1.4. This can be adjusted via the iris on the lens to increase or decrease the amount of light transmitted to the film plane or digital sensor. T-Stops are based on F-Stops with the light transmission loss taken into account. T-Stops were developed in the Motion Picture Industry to enable Cinematographers to swap back and forth between prime lenses and zoom lenses without having to adjust the aperture for each lens change. Here is the Wikipedia definition of T-Stop.
“Since all lenses absorb some portion of the light passing through them (particularly zoom lenses containing many elements), T-stops are sometimes used instead of f-stops for exposure purposes, especially for motion picture camera lenses. The practice became popular in cinematographic usage before the advent of zoom lenses, where fixed focal length lenses were calibrated to T-stops: This allowed the turret-mounted lenses to be changed without affecting the overall scene brightness. Lenses were bench-tested individually for actual light transmission and assigned T stops accordingly (The T in T-stop stands for transmission), [3] but modern cinematographic lenses now usually tend to be factory-calibrated in T-stops. T-stops measure the amount of light transmitted through the lens in practice (actually on T-stops the amount of light is measured at the film plane), and is equivalent in light transmission to the f-stop of an ideal lens with 100% transmission. Since all lenses absorb some quantity of light, the T-number of any given aperture on a lens will always be greater than the f-number. In recent years, advances in lens technology and film exposure latitude have reduced the importance of t-stop values. So, F-stops are for focal ratio, T-stops are for transmission.”
(Source: Wikipedia)
Alan Rapp works with authors, visual artists, photographers, and designers developing books and other projects. As the editor overseeing the art, architecture, design, and photography lists of the San Francisco publisher Chronicle Books, Alan Rapp acquired and developed more than 100 titles over the course of ten years, collaborating with such artists as David Maisel, legendary music photographer Jim Marshall, Elinor Carucci, and Justin Guariglia. Based in Brooklyn, Rapp is a frequent panelist, portfolio reviewer, workshop leader, and lecturer. He discusses the appeal of photography books and offers advice on what you need to do.
Reuel Golden: Why do you think so many photographers want to see their work published in book format?
Alan Rapp: Almost all photographers have favorite books that are hugely influential in how they think about photography and maybe even their practice. As much as the state of book publishing seems to be in flux, books are still probably the most faithful and convenient way to present and absorb photography. What’s more, even people unfamiliar with the history and conventions recognize that the book is a unique form with vast potential unto itself, and can maximize the possibilities of photography in a way that makes a photo book a real art object.
RG: Photographers now have the option of self-publishing through channels such as Lulu and Blurb what are the advantages and disadvantages of taking this route? [click to continue…]
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