Zack Arias blog post

I'd like to link this blog post by ZACK ARIAS, a very good studio shooter and street photographer in Atlanta. He's an up 'n comer and has some interesting thoughts about photography and the business of it. http://zackarias.com/news/street-photography-photography-is-an-enigma/#comment-57411


Pull quotes:

"I’m not a street photographer but dang it all, I love it. It’s my favorite thing to shoot these days. If I could shut the doors to my studio and live on the streets with a camera I’d be a happy man. But my family would be living on the streets with me and then I’d not be a happy man."

"Photography is such an ugly bitch and a gorgeous siren all at once. It’s such a moving target. It’s a flux of oasis and mirage. It’s an enigma. Following your heart and your passion seems to grow a perfect storm of joy and fear. I was telling someone this tonight and they aptly replied, “Those are equally strong motivators.” Yes they are. We just came home from a family road trip through West Texas and we watched a lot of storms cross the land. Big Texas storms are gorgeous at a distance and scary as hell in the middle of them. A fitting metaphor about being a full time photographer."

"Corporations can’t survive without linear systems and that thought process is leaking, nay, pouring into certain parts of the photography world. Follow these five steps. These ten steps. This 30 or 40 day process. Use this vendor then this vendor then deliver via this vendor. 10,000 other photographers are doing this thing. Here are your flash cards of what to say to get this photograph. Then use this automated system to process it. Then use this exact process to deliver it. Follow up in these three steps. Make sure you use this specific brand of camera and this specific lens set to these settings to ensure maximum effectiveness. Sun flare through an 85mm lens in a field at sunset anyone? Shot with a 5d? Anyone? We’ve all done it. The goal is to learn to stop doing it or elevate it beyond what has ever been done with a girl. On a vintage piece of furniture. In a field. At sunset."

"I moved into a new studio last year to accomodate all the work a client was sending me. How did I get that sort of client? Meg sang at church one morning. A lady stopped her to compliment her on the song she sang. They ended up becoming friends. Her husband is an Art Director. He went on to work for this client and needed some stuff shot. It was a 30 day project that’s been going on for three years. How’s that for a wormhole? Everyone! Send your wife to church, have her sing a song, then talk to the spouse of anyone that talks to her after the church service! You too will soon find success!"

Read it all, and check out Zack's work too: www.zackarias.com (@zarias on Twitter too)


PS: Zack's a good writer too, and here's a fun reader's comment. You have to read Zack's blog to get it, and then it will make you laugh...

"Thank you for the inspiration. Besides being an amazing photographer, you are a damn good writer. Eff you Zack."

Portrait Quote

I LOVE this quote:

"It's one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like. It's another thing to make a portrait of who they are."  ~ Paul Caponigro

Life

Photography is about life, and so is this!


7%
     
Written by Regina Brett of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in Ohio.
     
"It is the most-requested column I've ever written. It has traveled the world. Someone wrote at the top of that email chain letter that I'm 90. My odometer rolls over to 56 today, so here's an update:
     
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short – enjoy it.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
5. Don't buy stuff you don't need. 
6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for things that matter.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive but don’t forget.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change (unless you die! ~PD)
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.
42. The best is yet to come...
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."


It's estimated 93% won't forward this. If you are one of the 7% who will, forward this with the title '7%'. I'm in the 7%. Friends are the family that we choose, in addition to our family.


Here's the link to the column. The chain email going around says she's 90, but she's 56. (Why do people do that?).
http://www.cleveland.com/brett/blog/index.ssf/2012/05/life_lessons_at_56.html

I'm taking the liberty of re-posting a link as a "guest post" by Matt Mendelsohn from his blog The Dark Slide. Matt is a wonderful photographer in DC, and he reminisces in his eulogy for his father (which includes a nice short story by his father). A good read by a good shooter and writer too. My condolences, Matt.

http://www.mattmendelsohn.net/matt-mendelsohns-dark-slide/2012/4/12/a-tribute-to-my-father.html

Innocence Shattered: Fake Wildlife Photos

Innocence shattered: Here's a link to an amazing Audubon Magazine article on the fraud in some published wildlife photography, with photographers using game farm animals and passing them off as wild animals photographed in the wild. Disgusting. We're being lied to with these images, and the photographers are cheaters. How have I not known about this for so long? I must be naive too. Photoshop, for all it's wonderfulness, has been the catalyst for much of this slippery slope of deceit and trickery but not all, as we see in this article.


http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles/nature/phony-wildlife-photography-gives-warped-view-nature


I posted this comment to the article (you have to read the story to understand some of the comments):

"Off the top of my head, nature photos should be natural. Like so many things in the world today, we are the victims of widespread deception. Use the food industry as an example: the " term "all natural" means absolutely nothing, and yet people are still duped by it into thinking they're buying something healthy for them. We want what we want (including having our fantasies fed) and don't want to look behind the curtain to see how it's produced. I suppose the consumer can be held partially accountable for not asking too many questions, but it's very easy for clever people and corporations to mislead. I think the basic human inclination to believe, or want to believe, that we're being told the truth is exploited.

I have been a photographer for 30 years, though not a nature photog per se, and I am shocked by and was ignorant of these practices. I have shot wildlife pictures in zoos (SD Wild Animal Park for example), with long lenses, which I could arguably have passed off as shot in the wild. I would NEVER have done so, and it's a result of integrity and honesty being drilled into me by good editors in the newspaper business. In the early days of Photoshop, there were photographers FIRED for removing small distracting items – like a coke can – from a newspaper photo. FIRED. You tell the story of the photo and if the content was altered or manipulated ... period. Now of course, with digital and wide distribution (e.g., Getty, Corbis) of photos from all kinds of sources, with little vetting for the integrity of the photos and photogs, it's very easy to claim ignorance. Don't ask, don't tell ... how convenient.

Of course, these photographers selling "nature" photos shot of captive animals and passing them off as shot in the wild know exactly what they are doing. They can get a much greater ROI (return on investment, of time and money) and improve their odds greatly of getting sold or published by doing this. It's cheating, a shortcut, and when people don't know they are being lied to it's appalling. There are genuine nature photographers who do wonderful work, which is debased by this fraud.

Having looked at the "hook and bullet" magazines for years, I had NO idea that the big atypical buck I saw the great shot of was a captive animal, even changing hands for big buck bucks (no, I didn't stutter), and kept on life support so his earning years could be stretched. Disgusting. I also had no idea that Marlin Perkins and his pal Jim would throw a wild cat into a river only to "rescue" it for the camera. My naîve innocence has been shattered ... I loved that show as a kid.

Editors and filmmakers have no excuses: They should know what they are publishing or putting out and whether it was produced honestly. Otherwise, they pass the fraud on, and they do it because it makes their jobs easier and their product "sexier" and therefore, more saleable. In the end it's all about the Benjamins (as it always seems to be, whether it's having 5 yr olds sewing inexpensive soccer balls in indentured servitude, or cougars living in cages for photographers) but it's still fraud."

A good discussion about the revolution of technology in Photography and the ethical implications for photojournalists, and maybe others. With the use of Hipstamatic and Instagram the manipulations are now done in camera(phone). Quote:

...there is a revolution going on all around us and the very nature of photography is changing. “Computation photography” (the use of the computer to process photos, using all the bells and whistles the computer offers) is replacing the “Decisive Moment” as the central imperative of our profession. We have always had a battle between those who thought a documentary photo is supposed to be exactly what the camera recorded and those who thought the “Truth” of the photo was more important than a strict adherence to what the camera captured.

At NPPA's blog, "Ethics Matter"- http://blogs.nppa.org/ethics/2012/06/05/blog-6-computer-fill-flash/

Penny Memory Lane: In honor of the Queen's celebration, here is one from my archives. This is a shot of Prince Charles and Lady Di that I took in Cannes, France way back when ('87, iirc – click on photo to enlarge). It is a transmission print made in the tiny bathroom of my horrid hotel.That was the first year we transmitted color from the road, I think. Invariably, I would get 2 or 3 color printers transmitted (was it CMYK or RGB color ... hmmm? – we transmitted each color separately  at about 10 minutes per color for a total transmission time of half an hour or more)  and then the Moroccan front desk clerk at Chez Dump would patch into my phone line to see why it was busy for so long. I never did manage to make him understand, and eventually came close to homicide! Merde! It would take me 2 hours to transmit one photo sometimes.

MY voltage converter for the enlarger blew up the first day I was there. Try finding a 115 to 220 converter in a country that is 220. NOT! All their converters went the other way. After ALL day trudging from store to store, I finally found one in an old dusty appliance store. They used to sell US/115v appliances and had one converter in the back room in a box. It was ceramic and weighed about 10 lbs! $100, and since it was the only one in the S of Fwance, I'd have paid $200!  War stories.

The food was great though, as were the new friends Mike Lawn and Keith Waldegrave, long-time Brit newspaper photogs. Talk about war stories ... when a story is breaking in the UK, those guys, especially the tabloids, will stop at almost nothing to get the picture. Mano a mano. There's a famous story about the legendary Harry Benson, on the Beatles' first U.S. tour. All the traveling photographers put their shoes out in the hotel hall to be shined while they slept. In the morning – no shoes. Benson had collected them all and hidden them, and he was the only one with shoes when the Beatles left the hotel that morning! Guerrilla warfare.

There are photographers who specialize only in the Royals – Tim Graham had "exclusive" access to Chuck and Di for a time, and made some wonderful images. It's all PR of a sort, but the people want it. The Royals are more well-behaved in a way than typical celebrities (or at least discreet) and have a decorum and sense of history and responsibility. Born to it, and don't have to work hard to get the attention like so many narcissistic celebs seem to.

UPDATE: Talking about war stories, here's a real one. Just found this on Facebook, a photo of friend Michel Williamson, amazing WashPost photojournalist and Pulitzer winner, taken in El Salvador in the dark days.

Michael posts this: "We were all wacko to even be there. Bro ... I remember all those places but El Playon body dumping ground is my most common recurring nightmare. Even now I get flashbacks when I see a vulture. His friend Gary Kieffer, also in Salvador then, replied: "Oh yeah...mine was the road back where I got caught by the death squad and had an Uzi shoved down my throat...of the lovely smell of gun oil and cabrito on that f----er's breath as he screamed at me for being a Communista."

THESE are war stories (and I won't bore you with ones from the Gulf War, as they pale compared to some from the mad civil wars like Liberia, El Sal, Darfur, Sarajevo, and other hellholes I haven't been to, and mostly that's ok but a part of me wishes...). You can read about ace Reuter's photog Corinne Dufka's transition from photography to NGO investigator. Real war takes a harsh toll.  http://iwmf.org/archive/articletype/articleview/articleid/392/fifteen-years-of-courage-corinne-dufka.aspx

Update 2: Reed Saxon, longtime AP veteran, writes: "Ahhh, memory lane. Bathrooms, not quite total darkness, usually 100 deg+, prints from a breakdown enlarger, unreliable (phone) lines. Color tripled the frustration, using Ektaflex early on, til they figured out it was poison. Also carried a small crappy typewriter (remember those?) for captions. Have to say, don't miss it a bit! But proud I could do it! Tell that to some kid with a camera phone..."