PixelatedImage Blog

I’m just wrapping up an amazing week in Sweden. Spent part of it pubbing and exploring Stockholm, which is an incredible city, and so easy to travel. It’s got great public transport, and it’s small, and extremely friendly. English is so widely spoken I never once had that familiar dread of knowing I needed to mime my way through ordering lunch. I spent the last few days of my time here in a rented Volvo heading up the coast and exploring little fishing villages and forests, and the weather complied with banks of gorgeous fog and mist. Not unlike Iceland, I froze my little fingertips off most days here, but that’s my own fault – I packed for the next two weeks in the Italian Riviera and Venice, not Scandinavia. I’ll be back and next time I’ll head as far north as I can get, likely heading into Norway as well. Next time I’m bringing mittens.

A couple days ago Craft & Vision released an eBook about sharing our images. I’m more passionate than ever about sharing – getting our photographs out into the world, through various media. I can’t print these until I’m home, but I can still give you a peek at them. If you haven’t checked out Stuart Sipahigil’s latest: Shoot + Share, Getting Your Photographs out into the World, it’s well worth a look, and it’s still only $4 if you use the coupon code in this link. It’s full of great ideas and starting points about sharing, and should light a fire under you to give your work a life beyond your harddrives. In the meantime, enjoy the postcards. It’s more than I usually share, but I’m feeling share-y. And it’s been a while since I posted one of these. The one above is a favourite. I couldn’t believe the intensity of the colours from the oxidizing rocks, and ended up shooting this piece of coastline for a couple cold hours filled with wonder. (Click any of them to see them larger)

I’ve been on a tear about sharing lately. Earlier this month I did a webinar with the Manfrotto School of Excellence and while my topic concerned so-called Going Pro issues, I still managed to get hung up on the idea that the most foundational concerns of the photographer are creating and sharing photographs. The rest is peripheral. And yet somehow we (and by that I mean, I) tend to lose sight of this at times. So last month I began my own renaissance of sharing, renewing my own resolve to use my camera more, and to finally curate and print collections of my work.

Sharing our work is not only about keeping the gift moving, it’s about creation itself, because the way we create and the reasons we do so, are affected by the sharing. There’s a critical feedback loop that happens and the more we share, the more that feedback allows us to grow in our craft, and in our art. So when Stuart Sipahigil, author of Close To Home, asked me about a book on the whys and hows of sharing our photography, I was pumped. If you know Stu, you know he’s practical and down-to-earth, and he’s a great teacher.

SHOOT + SHARE is about the creative process, but specifically the sharing. Stuart talks about sharing across all kinds of media, including social media, self-published books, prints, canvas and more. I was already excited about sharing my work, but reading Stuart’s ideas and suggestions gave me a bunch of new ideas, which I’ll be working into my own process and output.

There is something about the digital world, and the lack of prints we once had almost automatically with film, that makes it a little too easy not to share our work, but the flip-side is an opportunity like never before to share in new ways, faster ways, cheaper ways, and in ways that give us far more creative control than ever before. Like all the books in the Craft & Vision library, SHOOT + SHARE is beautifully laid out and full of great content and inspiration, and if you buy it in the next few days, it’s only $4.

For the next five days use the promotional code SHARE4 when you checkout so you can have the PDF version of SHOOT + SHARE for only $4 OR use the code SHARE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm (PST) April 28, 2012.

Old Havana, Cuba, 2009

I got some questions after we released the latest eBook, Forget Mugshots, 10 Steps to Better Portraits, that I thought I’d answer here. Some of this stuff was answered in Within The Frame, The Journey of Photographic Vision, but I don’t expect everyone to have read that, so here’s some additional ideas that have come up. Matt Brandon and I talk about some of them, and others, on the next Craft & Vision podcast, so if you’re a subscriber, that’ll be up in the coming weeks.

How do you overcome the fear?

Honestly, I’m not sure I ever do. I still struggle with this. But I love people and I love the exchanges with people I’ve never met, in languages I don’t speak. I think we don’t so much fear saying hello or talking to people when we ask to make a photograph, we fear being told “No.” So if you can hold that a little more loosely, even make the photograph secondary to the simple act of meeting people and encountering something “other” in a stranger, then it makes it a little easier. But pragmatically, the best approach for me has been to take a deep breath and walk up to the person before I second-guess myself and turn and walk away. It’s not unlike what I used to do when I went on stage; I’d put on my character, smile big, and walk on pretending I wasn’t scared. And it worked. Now of course, this all relates to photographing strangers. If you’re scared of approaching people you know, then you either need to work it out and work through the fear, or perhaps admit that people photography isn’t for you.

Do you pay your subjects?

This is a tough one. I’m not a photojournalist. But I also know that my approach to the people I work with is going to change or reinforce the way these people will interact with other photographers. Pay one person, the argument goes, and you ruin it for others. Agreed. That’s true. But sometimes these arguments come off sounding so miserly. I think, first of all, if you have some kind of relationship and it’s not a run-and-gun kind of approach you’re using, then you get asked far, far less. Hell, stick a camera in my face without introducing yourself or talking to me, and see if I don’t ask for a couple bucks. I also think there are other ways to create an exchange, without giving money. You give time, attention, a print – either right there and then with something like the Polaroid Pogo or by mailing prints back to them. You can buy something from their stall or shop. You can buy two cups of tea and share it, or offer a cigarette (I don’t, but if you smoke…). What I’m getting at is that relationships dictate the possibilities for exchange. Be open to them. Does money ever enter the equation? Sure. Sometimes I’ve been with a subject long enough that compensation for time spent is reasonable and generous. Sometimes they have a need and I make it clear that I am grateful for their gift of time spent with me and would like to reciprocate with a gift of my own, making it clear that it’s a gift, not a payment per se. Sometimes they get it, sometimes not. There are no rules, but if you’re giving cash because it makes it easier and is a substitute for the harder act of spending time and muddling through language, then take the higher path, put the cash away, man-up and spend some time.

What about model releases?

I’ll be brief. A. Model releases are about USE, not about whether you can or can’t make the photograph in the first place. If all you want to do is make portraits, then go for it. B For everything else, because this is about USE, ask the people who will be using the images. Ask the client or stock agency (the answer will be YES!), or publisher. For grey areas, speak to a lawyer, because this is a legal matter. But if what you want to do is make photographs, and a model release isn’t needed or desired, then make your art and don’t let the issue trouble you. By far the vast majority of my people photography is done without a release.

Any other tips?

I thought you’d never ask. I want to reinforce the idea I’ve mentioned before: patience and curiosity are some of the most undervalued photographic skills, especially when you are working with people. Ask questions, spend some time, don’t be in such a hurry to pick up the camera. I know people want me to give them a magic formula, but there aren’t any. Use any lens you want, pick an aperture you like, use flash or don’t; what matter is how you connect with the subject.Be nice, kind, respectful, and the majority of people will respond in kind, and that will show in the photographs. After that a photograph is a photograph – pay attention to light and moments and the geometry of the frame (composition). But start with your people skills. Then pick up the camera.

Got any other questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll do what I can to discuss them.

Someone recently referred to me as their “favourite Canadian landscape photographer.” It made me laugh. How did this happen? I make portraits, don’t I? I mean, landscape photographers are nuts. They carry too much gear, use tripods so large you’d think they might be compensating for something, and they’re known for keeping strange hours. I never intended this. Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a landscape photographer! It’s true, my work has, over the last two years, been taking some interesting zig-zags, and I’m photographing more of the natural world than ever these days. Despite that, my first love is still the portrait. Making photographs of people still gives me a rush and a sense of doing something intimate and important that landscapes don’t. My latest book is an effort to help people feel that and to make portraits they’re proud of.

Forget Mugshots, 10 Steps To Better Portraits, is a 35-spread course in improving your people photography. I always laugh when the odd review comes back with sage comments like, “there’s nothing new here.” No, there isn’t. Of course there isn’t. And anyone who pretends to teach “new secrets” is just after your buck. I’m not telling you which aperture to use, or letting you in on some new technique that no one else knows and will rock your world. It’s sound teaching about the priorities, thoughts, and techniques I’ve used to create portraits of people at home and around the world. It’s the “if I could teach you only ten things to focus on when making portraits and people photographs, what would those be?” book.

You know I’ve never tried to hard-sell my books. They aren’t for everyone. For example, if you don’t want to hear that the single most important skill in creating stronger people photographs is a relational skill, then this book isn’t for you. I don’t care how luscious your bokeh, if you can’t connect in some way to a subject, your work will not be as strong as it could. If you aren’t willing to wait for great moments, learn to recognize a true smile from a fake one, or abandon your insistence that “the 85mm lens is the best portrait lens” then you probably don’t want to hear my take on this stuff. But if you’re willing to hear me out, and engage in the Creative Exercises that accompany each lesson, your portraits will get stronger. I’ve used this set of priorities and considerations, the 10 so-called steps, in my assignment work around the world, and if I can do it, so can you.

Forget Mugshots won’t make the process of making portraits less scary, but it will help you make stronger people photographs. It’s available today as a PDF for only $4 for the first five days. See below for details. And if you’re a member of the Craft & Vision Community, listen for the next podcast, because Matt Brandon and I are planning to spend it telling stories and talking about this very topic, including more tips and tricks.

Special Offer on PDFs
For the next five days only, use the promotional code MUGSHOTS4 when you checkout so you can have the PDF version of Forget Mugshots for only $4 OR use the code MUGSHOTS20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST March 17, 2012.

Images shot for, and property of, Save The Children.
Ethiopia, 2009.

Tomorrow we release Forget Mugshots, 10 Steps to Better Portraits. While I was writing it I spent a lot of time thinking about my favourite portraits. Many of those were shot for clients, and I’m limited in how I show them, so they can’t go into my books, which is too bad, but it’s just the way it goes. But while I was putting it all together, I came across these two and thought I’d share them with you.

Two of the ideas I share in the new book are these: that waiting for the moment, and recognizing it when it comes, is more important than other issues of so-called technical perfection, and that portraits are a relational process, not merely an artistic or technical one, and time spent with your subjects, making them comfortable, will be worth at least as much as time spent learning the buttons on your camera.

This girl was a trooper, wrangling these young camels like an old pro. She was 6 years old and her initial trepidation about the white guy with the big cameras were calmed when she realized I was more scared of her camels than she was of my cameras. We laughed, I made faces, and we did a whole lot of not-photographing for the first little while before I even raised a camera to my eye. And then we played some more. Patience, curiosity, and a willingness to value and love our subjects more than the photographs themselves will, in the end, result in stronger portraits. This patience and care allows subjects to calm, to drop their walls, and make way for moments like the second frame above – unrushed, unplanned, and unrepeatable.

English Bay, 2012.

Back in Vancouver now, and living at the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay while waiting to move into a great little live/work loft in Yaletown on March 15th. After long detours home on snow-choked BC roads, Vancouver welcomed me back with open arms on March 5th – cherry blossoms beginning to bloom, sunshine (short-lived, but welcoming), and enthusiastic welcomes from staff at old haunts and coffee shops. After a few days of frantic running around, the Jeep is licensed for B.C, and so am I. I have lease papers and utilities and within a month will have – I hope – all the legit paperwork to show to the folks at the border. Until then I’m cooling my heals and arranging endless furniture delivery. My exodus last year was planned to give me a clean slate on my eventual return, so I’ve not even got so much as a bed until the Swedish Mafia (IKEA) drops it off on moving day.

Anyways, it’s been slow around these here parts but as soon as I move in, I’ll give you a tour of the new Pixelated Image Galactic HQ, and then I’m off to Vancouver Island for a week or so to explore and photograph and hang out and scheme with Corwin, my manager and best friend.

In the mean time, we are launching my next eBook, Forget Mugshot, 10 Steps to Better Portraits, on March 13th. I know I tell you I am excited about every book we release, and that’s mostly because I’m easily excitable and tend to only do things I am excited about, but this time I’m extra excited. I think it’s a really solid book. It’s 35 pages of “if I could tell you only 10 things to make your people photography stronger, what would those ten things be?” There are Portrait Profiles and Creative Exercises in there too. Remember when I said we were moving from pounding out our vision and beginning to talk about how we express that vision/intent? This is part of that logical, and needed, shift. Tune in on the 13th for the usual discounts. Or better yet, join the Craft & Vision Community and get 12 books a year, full-time discounts, and access to the blog and the monthly podcasts. This coming month Matt Brandon and I will be discussing portraits and people photography and elaborating on ideas found in the book.

This morning we released Michael Frye’s second book for Craft & Vision: Exposure for Outdoor Photography. Michael, as many of you know, is an accomplished outdoor and landscape photographer, he knows his craft, and he’s an excellent teacher. So when he asked if a book about exposure would be helpful, I didn’t wait a second to reply. The questions I am most asked, on a technical level, are about exposure, and what I love about the way Michael teaches is that he directly relates the technical aspects of exposure, which he teaches well, to the aesthetic/artistic aspects.

Exposure for Outdoor Photography is about all natural-light photography, and could be one of the most broadly-applicable books we’ve published. Michael, in this 50-spread PDF ebook, tackles the basics, and goes on to discuss how the different ways of accomplishing different exposures bring about different aesthetics, metering modes, exposure modes, histograms, high-contrast scenes, depth of field, shutter speeds, and exposure blending, and more, and includes 10 case studies, and beautiful photographs, to illustrate. This is a solid book and  I’m thrilled to have been part of making it, and proud to have Michael a part of the Craft & Vision faculty.

If you’re a member of the Craft & Vision Community, you can download this month’s eBook now. If not, we’ve got the usual deals for you on the PDF version of Exposure for Outdoor Photography, just keep reading.

Special Offer on PDFs
For the next five days only, use the promotional code EXPOSURE4 when you checkout so you can have the PDF version of Exposure for Outdoor Photography for only $4 OR use the code EXPOSURE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST February 20, 2012.

I’m on the great plains of the Maasai Mara in Kenya right now. In the last year I’ve created photographs all over the world, and more than ever can’t wait to return to Vancouver at the end of 2012 and print my work. Problem is, my print skills are minimal at best. So one of the projects I’m tucking into on my return is learning to really print my work. I’m starting with Martin Bailey’s new Craft & Vision Masterclass book, Making The Print.

There are some amazing resources out there when it comes to printing, and eventually I hope to spend time with friends like Andy Biggs and John Paul Caponigro, both of whom know far more than I ever hope to about fine-art printing, but as a solid introduction, to get my brain around some of the basics and a bunch of the intricacies, I’m beginning with Making The Print because what I really need is a solid primer.

I tell my students that they need to print their work. We all do. We need to print it, look at it, live with it, and react to it. And we need to share it. The downfall of the digital revolution is that so much of our work never makes it past the pixels. It sounds morbid but when my life is over I want to leave my work on prints, large and stunning, for as long as they themselves will last, not just sitting on hard-drives. I want my work hanging on walls, out there in the world. I create it to share it.

Martin’s 65 wide-page ebook covers it all from choosing a printer and papers, to profiling and sharpening, and then he moves on to calibrations, fine-tuning, adding borders, basically everything you need to get competent, which is what most of us are looking to accomplish. And Martin explains it all in a simple, easy-to-follow, way. When you think most of us don’t print because it’s just too darn intimidating, this one $5 investment can take you one step closer to making beautiful, frustration-free prints. I know this stuff feels complicated and scary, but Martin is really good at what he does, and he’s good at teaching it.

Special Offer on PDFs
For the next five days only, use the promotional code PRINT4 when you checkout so you can have the PDF version of Making the Print for only $4 OR use the code PRINT20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST January 21, 2012.

Over a year ago I released Vision Is Better, essentially an eBook version of this blog, and it’s become one of the best-selling titles under the Craft & Vision umbrella, which I think is (a) awesome and (b) amusing. I’m not quiet about the fact that Vision Is Better, and now Vision Is Better, Volume 2, is really just a great re-hash of this blog; the last thing I want is to quietly sell you something you could get for free. The reason we offer it is because, well, you really can’t get this for free. We’ve taken the blog, pulled out a ton of the somewhat dated content, announcements, and general chaff, then we added a couple previously unpublished essays, took out some (but not all of the original typos) and had our Design Ninja, Luke Taylor, re-package it. And it’s yours to access on your iPad, or laptop, whenever and wherever you like. No surfing, no frantic looking for a wifi signal, no huge data bills just to find that essay you want to re-read.

Vision Is Better 2 is similar to the first in that we’ve collected the best essays from the blog, and bundled them together. It differs because this year was profoundly different for me, and so there’s some of that journey too. If you read this blog (and you do, don’t try to tell me you don’t!) you know this year wrapped itself around an unexpected life-changing adventure for me, and some of that is in there too. So is the Life is Short stuff. And the usual rants. And bigger photographs than what you get on the blog. Frankly, it’s what this blog should be, but isn’t because I’m busy and these walls don’t just fall off themselves, you know. (Inside joke which you will totally find hilarious if you buy this ebook.)

If you read this blog (see comment above!) then think of this as your yearbook. If we meet in person I’ll sign it. If you do not read this blog (ahem), then you’ll still want it because, I believe, it can make you a better photographer. No, not like that new lens was meant to do. If there’s one thing I believe will make us all stronger photographers, it’s mindfulness. Intent. (Please don’t make me use the word “vision” again.). The subtitle for Vision is Better was Free the Mind, Free The Camera. This time it’s Free The Mind, The Camera Will Follow. Same, same, but different, (as they say in S.E. Asia) because the reason I continue to write remains the same: the way we think is the way we see, and we’ll make better photographs when we spend as much time honing our minds and our hearts as we do memorizing the buttons on the camera.

As you can imagine, there’s a ton of pages in this thing. If you love this blog and don’t want to shell out $5, it’ll still be here as it always is. Free. But if you want to access this content over and over again, in a format that’s easier to read, a little more intentionally curated, and includes a couple essays I’ve never published, then it’s all yours, as it always is, for only $5. Unless you buy it this week, then it’s only $4. And of course, those of you with a subscription to the Craft & Vision Community, this is yours to download for free this month.

Save $1 – Pay just $4 if you use coupon code VIB4.
Save $3 – Get the Vision is Best Bundle for $7 if you use coupon code VIB7.
Save 20% – Get 5+ PDF eBooks for less if you use the discount code VIB20.

These discount codes expire Wednesday, December 21 at 11:59pm (PST).

Emily, just back from the final trip to the outfitters and ready for February.

A friend once told me to watch the Pixar movie UP. Aside from the fact that I was crying like a little girl within the first 10 minutes (be warned), there was something about it that resonated powerfully with me. Part of that was the exploration of the idea of adventure. The phrase “Adventure is Out There!” is sounded often in the movie, like an anthem, and while that adventure generally refers to the journey of the unlikely heroes to Paradise Falls, South America, it’s also clear that, for at least one of the characters, the greatest adventure was love. It’s touching, and it should be no surprise to anyone the comes here once in a while that I’ve come close to having Adventure is Out There tattooed over my heart.

In February, a year after I started the adventure that went wildly off the rails, I’ll resume my road-trip, but it is not a resumption of the adventure; the adventure never stopped. No adventure ever goes to plan, and if it was adventure I wanted when I set out in my ’93 Land Rover Defender, JESSIE, it’s adventure I got. I made photographs in the rain all the way down the Oregon coast with my friend Dave Delnea, until he got into the Poison Oak, became so hideously deformed he was scaring children, and had to leave the country. I photographed and camped in Death Valley with my best friend and manager, Corwin, and then through Monument Valley and Zion, and into New Mexico, camping the whole way, and photographing as we went. I drove to the Gulf of Mexico. Spent time in New Orleans. Hung out with friends in Atlanta. I flew to Italy and fell in love. I also fell off a wall and shattered my feet. I came home and crawled my way through healing until my bones mended and I went to rehab. And then a couple days after they let me go home I jumped a plane for Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, where, among other things, I joined 8 new friends as we floated down the Mekong River in a long-boat. And then there was Oaxaca, and Roatan, and then Antarctica. So much of it was unexpected, so much didn’t go to plan. And all of it was gloriously life-giving. And as strange as it sounds, I truly wouldn’t change a thing. This has been one of the most extraordinary years of my life.

I don’t want it to end. Being nomadic is teaching me so much, and while I’ve been sojourning at my family home for the last few months, and while I learned to walk again, I got more time with my family than I’ve had in 20 years. You can see why the idea of returning to so-called normal doesn’t really appeal. So on February 01, I return from travels in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, and pack EMILY (above. I’ll do a Jeep-geek post some other time) and head out.

Adventure is out there, but it’s also in here. It’s an inner game. What separates adventure from the mundane is an openness to the unexpected and a willingness to embrace it, laugh your way through it when you aren’t gritting your teeth, and learn from it. It’s not a freedom from fear, it’s an unwillingness to let it have even one day of your already beautiful, short, fragile, one-of-a-kind life. It’s being present, 100% in your art, your relationships, the way you raise your children, and the way you open your heart to strangers. You can do that from a hospital bed, unable to move, and you can do that from the base camp of Everest. It’s a choice, a posture of the mind and heart. It is not the exclusive domain of the privileged, the healthy, or the strong. It is for all of us that, if you’ll pardon the worn cliche, are willing to hear the music and have the courage to dance without shame.

Tonight we launch Vision Is Better 2, the follow-up of the first one of the same name. It’s 44 essays, almost all previously published here on this blog, about the photographic life and craft. It includes much of my own adventure from this year and lessons learned. And it includes a couple un-published essays. Essentially it’s a sweet re-design of the best blog posts from the last year, available in one place, off-line, and always available. It’ll be available right here on the blog, with discounts as usual during the first week after launch. Whether you chose to buy the book, or not, thanks to you all for being part of this amazing adventure. Some of you were with me, in this blog, Twitter, and FB, through my darkest times, and made them lighter. Some of you were with me in Italy when I fell, in Laos when I made my first scared steps back to traveling, or in Antarctica as I experienced what it feels like to create work I love for the first time in a long while. Thank you so, so much. You remain my fans, friends, and family, but more than that you remain, in the most sincerest terms, my heroes. Thank you.