PixelatedImage Blog

First, today is the official release day for VisionMongers. I got my copy on Friday and it looks great. Kudos to the fine folks at Peachpit who make my stuff look like a million bucks. Because when it leaves my harddrives it looks like a chaotic pile of words and disorganized images. Am I excited? You betcha! This is a book that’s going to be really helpful to a lot of people and there’s nothing else like it out there right now. Folks who ordered from Peachpit should be getting them asap. Let me know if you’ve got yours?

Stumbled across this on Twitter – it’s called Flickroom and between the goodness of Adobe Air and the interface that finally (FINALLY!) relegates Flickr a little more to the background, this should make Flickr a much less aesthetically abusive experience. I use CoolIris to view Flickr images, this will make it easier to post images to Flickr without me wanting to put my eyes out with a hot fork. Check it out HERE.

The details for Lumen Dei 2010 have just been released. Lumen Dei’s logistics and marketing have been taken over completely by Frontier Treks and Tours, leaving Matt Brandon and I more time to do what we love – shooting and teaching. Details are on a new Lumen Dei site HERE . Don’t go to the old one I haven’t updated it. Remember, it’s first come, first served, and there are only 8 spaces. Last year it sold out in 3 days and my more recent tours have sold out even faster, so if you want in, don’t spend much time hesitating. The rough details are these – the tour runs from September 12 to 25, and we’ll not being going only to Ladakh or only to Kashmir – but a week in each with an overland journey between the two. Should be a blast and I’m already looking forward to next September! More info HERE.

I’ve had another question about why I don’t generally give money to people of whom I make photographs when I travel. In fact someone pointed me to a forum last week where they were discussing this, speculating that I must be stingy. First, it’s a principle not a rule, and there are always, always exceptions. But I think it’s important we remember this – spending time with people and creating photographs as a result of those exchanges is a beautiful, human thing. Reducing it to a financial transaction is not only impossible for every situation, but it will create a climate in which these exchanges become nearly impossible. To be clear, if I spend any amount of real time with someone I’m happy to be as generous as I can possibly be. At times this means money. I’m not a photojournalist, my MO is different. But I’d rather purchase a gift, leave images, or buy something from their stall if they’re merchants. But everyone needs to settle this for themselves. If your initial impulse is to withhold, ask yourself why – and if it’s for lack of generosity, it might be time to change that. If your first reaction is to shell out a dollar, ask yourself if there aren’t better – and more generous – ways to give back. Sometimes it is money, sometimes it’s not. For me, it usually isn’t. But that doesn’t for a moment exclude a reciprocal, generous, exchange – allowing photography to be an act of giving as much – or more than – an act of taking. You make these decisions with both your head and your heart. But merely giving a buck when the hand goes out is probably not the best solution. Of course not everyone will agree with me, I’m ok with that. But I do think we all need to raise the bar on this.

Lastly, there’s a new website coming for my ebooks – it’ll make it much easier for you to browse the books, take a look at coming books, and see which authors are coming out with new books. It’s been rebranded and I’m really excited about it, but most of all I’m excited about the coming books from people like Dave Delnea, Kevin Clark, and Gavin Gough – all photographers I look up to and learn from (and for that reason they are also in VisionMongers, alongside Zack Arias, Joe McNally, Chase Jarvis, and others). There’s good things coming, folks. And the emphasis will still be on vision and education, not buying more gear. And we have no plans to make them any more than $5 each. I’ll update you as soon as I can. For now, I’m taking a break from writing the ebooks, allowing me to work on the next print book, and allowing you to catch up on your own reading. But I have plans. Oh, do I have plans…

See you tomorrow.

Hey look, it’s an “E”! Speaking of E…

This week I launched the fourth in the my eBook series. Chasing The Look is now available. Still for $5. More information HERE.

Canon Blogger did an interview with me last week and it’s now live. The audio is a bit low, so you might need to crank it, but it was a conversation that took different directions than many of the interviews I’ve done. You can listen to it HERE. (If you have issues, download it directly from THIS LINK.)

Joe McNally, a man I admire for both his words and his images, posted an article on his blog on Monday (Nov. 09) that was particularily good. Read Letter To a Young Photographer HERE.

Freelance Switch has an article called The Part Time Photographer in this weeks archives. I admit to not having read it, it was a busy week, but it’s still open on my browser and if you want to beat me to it,  you can read that article HERE.

Think Tank Photo, of whom I am a huge fan, released a new bag this month. It’s the Urban Disguise 70 Pro and it’s much like the already-large Urban Disguise 60, which I have and love, but it fits a pro-sized SLR as well. As if it were’n't already huge enough. I don’t use my UD60 for shooting, just as a carry on, but like all things Think Tank they hold tonnes of gear and are extremely thoughtfully made. More info on the Think Tank Photo site HERE.

The feedback from yesterday’s post was great, thank you. Looks like I hit a nerve. So to take us all into the weekend, a couple quotes that remind us of the weightier matters.

“We don’t take photographs with our cameras, we take them with our hearts and our minds. They are a reflection of ourselves, what we are, and what we think.” ~ Arnold Newman.

“It is not art in the professionalized sense about which I care, but that which is created sacredly. as a result of a deep inner experience, with all of oneself, and that becomes ‘art’ in time.” ~ Alfred Stieglitz

There’s this great story about William Shatner ( aka Capt Kirk aka the Priceline.com guy) at a Star Trek convention. Clearly a bit put off by his fans he yelled at them to “Get a life!” Ok, not much of a story, more like a cautionary tale about biting the hand that feeds you, but I’ve always liked it. And it relates. Sort of. (Updated: Turns out the Get a Life thing was an SNL skit. But it was still Shatner. I stand corrected. Thanks. That’s what I get for blindly telling apocryphal stories without consulting the Google. )

I just finished listening to a short audio interview of Jay Maisel by Chris Orwig and in it Maisel says a couple of things that, if you read between the lines, are his way of imploring us to get a life. Want to be a better photographer, he says, be a more interesting person. Want better photographs, don’t study photography, study life, that’s what he’s saying.If photography is an act of expression, and for most of us it is, there must be something there to express. Want more to say? More texture? More depth? You need to be a photographer who first has more depth, more texture.

Maisel gets a bad rap as being a real hard-ass, and he might be, but while I suspect it’s only one of those gruff NYC exteriors, I think it’s still important to listen to him. Each time I’ve heard him speak he says something that makes me think, re-calibrates me. In fact the more I listen to photographers like Jay, people who’ve made a life and a living through their lens for a long time, the more I wonder why they truly don’t seem to give a damn about all the trappings that the pixel peepers are bent out of shape about.Why? They’ve found something they care about more – life. Now, whose photographs do you want to look at? Someone who cares deeply about cameras and inverse square law, or someone who cares deeply about life?

Listen to Chris Orwig’s short interview with Jay Maisel HERE. If you’re wanting to here what someone with substantially less to say, you can listen Chris Orwig’s short interview with me, HERE.

**

I’ll be out for the next few days. I’m taking some time to get away and do my annual thinking and planning with fewer distractions than home. And then I’m spending 24 hours with my friend and manager, Corwin, for our twice-annual Think & Drink – a planning session that is un-necessarily helped by some good single malt scotch and coffee. Not together. Coffee in the morning. Scotch in the evening. So, that might mean a couple shorter posts this week. But I wanted to leave you with two things.

1. My friend Mitchell Kanaskevich has two ebooks out, I’ve directed you to them before. He’s offering a Two for One sale and if you don’t have these two pdf books, they are well worth looking at. You can find him and his books HERE. I’m a fan of Mitchell’s work, take some time to look at it while you’re there.

2. This November is packed for me; too much going on. I had planned to release the next ebook closer to the end of the month. It’s done and ready to go, but I got a few comments last time to the tune of, “For the love of Galen Rowell, slow down, duChemin!” So I know I promised to space these things out but there’s just too much going on behind the scenes for me to space everything out perfectly and if I leave it too close to Christmas y’all are going to have to decide between buying a $5 ebook and that knick-knack for that co-worker you don’t really like and I don’t want to put you in that awkward position. So, Chasing The Look is coming out this week.  And by “this week,” I mean tomorrow. And the official release of VisionMongers is a week from this morning. Like I said, busy. But ya gotta make hay while the sun shines and that means I get these things out while I’m not on assignment or working on my next print book.

Thanks a bunch for your kind anniversary wishes. Sharon and I had a great time getting away from it all. We were socked in by rain which was just perfect for spending a weekend in a cottage nestled into the BC coastal forest with a fireplace, endless pots of tea, and the one I love. Thanks again for the kindness.

I call this one, “She’s a Babe, I’m an Idiot.” So does she.

Yesterday my wife and I marked 6 years of marriage and so today we’re off to British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast for 3 days of hanging out sans internet. Can’t wait. So while I’m doing that, here’s some details – a few recaps, a few new items.

1. On Wednesday Scott Kelby’s Guest Blog spot was by Tyler Stableford. Tyler’s post was moving, and worth a read. And refreshingly free of gear talk. More why, less how, and heart to spare. You can find Tyler on Scott’s Blog HERE.

2. Scott Bourne asked me to host the most recent edition of PhotoFocus, so if you’ve got an hour to kill listen to Scott and I yapping, you can click HERE for Episode #20 of Photofocus.

3. I’m excited to tell you that the dates and details for Lumen Dei 2010 are soon-coming. We’ve got the basics nailed down, so put Sept. 12-25, 2010 on the calendar and wait for more details. As always, there will be room for about 8 people, and spots will go fast. Last year we sold out in less than 3 days.Details will be announced here and on Matt Brandon’s blog as soon as they’re available.

4. Jack Hollingsworth has a poll going to see “which published Photography Author would you like to spend intimate, workshop weekend with at the seaside cottage/studio of @photojack” So go put in a vote, even if it’s not for me. I think this kind of thing would be amazing. But don’t let the whole “intimate weekend” thing mislead you. There will be neither candles nor any slipping into something more comfortable. Unless y’all vote for Joe McNally instead, and then all bets are off.

5. At the beginning of the week I announced the BIG FAT BUSINESS CARD GIVEAWAY THING, be sure to enter. I’ll be drawing the winner at the end of the month.

6. Ralph Clevenger’s new book Photographing Nature is now out. The Fed Ex guy came with mine yesterday which really ticked me off because I thought it might be the first copy of VisionMongers and it wasn’t. Neverthless, hardly Ralph’s fault. Like anything put out by Peachpit Press it’s a thing of beatuy and I’m looking forward to tucking into in preparation for my safari workshop in Kenya this January. And it’s the same size as Within The Frame, and VisionMongers, and Chris Orwig’s Visual Poetry, so they’ll all look great on your shelf together.

7. This article appeared in the Deseret News (Utah) on October 29th and is worth a read. I want to have all the sympathy in the world for the gal losing her gear, but leaving all your gear in the car is just plain stupid. Not that I haven’t done it (and had it stolen, for that matter) but still… It’s a good reminder to be vigilant and insured and for the love of Alfred Eisenstadt don’t leave ALL your harddrives in the car. Backup your stuff. Do it now. Now back it up again and put one of those backups somewhere safe, and preferably not on your own property.

8. Finally, if you missed it. I’m always grateful for you as a community and I’ve created a collection of wallpapers for the iPhone I’d like you to have. You can find all the details on Wednesday’s post HERE.

Have a great weekend. Go shoot something you love. Unless you’re with someone you love as I will be, then it might just be best to put the camera down for a spell. See you on Monday.

Reading through Vincent Versace’s book, Welcome To Oz, was both a liberating and educating experience for me. While other voices were telling me that should do things one way, Vincent’s book came along at the right time and told me I was free to do it another way. Of course, that’s not how he put it at all, but he does things in a way that felt intuitive to me, and so gave me permission to do things “my way.” That’s the long way of saying that I like what Vincent teaches and I like how he teaches it. So when I started watching his new DVDs it was a little like coming home. I haven’t watched nearly all of them because Vincent puts a lot on these things, and the stuff he teaches isn’t remedial – it’s solid stuff that takes active learning to absorb and adapt – but I wanted to point you to them before the pre-order pricing of 59.95 per title expires.

So rather than go over the whole thing, I want to point you to Vincent’s DVD’s here. The new ones are Welcome To Oz 2.0, Lesson One and Lesson Four, and you can find them HERE along with pre-order pricing. You also get a free copy of OnOne’s fantastic selective focus plug-in FocalPoint, along with some other plug-ins.

I’ll let you go to Vincent’s site to read the descriptions. What I love about what Vincent teaches is that he takes the notion of serving your vision to the logical extreme. The man is a master craftsman with a profound respect for the print and the techniques that get you there. If you’re looking for a masterclass in post-production work that touches heavily on some of the stuff I talked about in Drawing The Eye, Vincent’s the man. Like I said, it’s not remedial, and it’s not fluffy, but it’s huge bang for the buck in terms of education, and the free software takes it over the top.

While we’re on that subject, OnOne software just announced Plug In Suite 5 which won’t ship until next month but that can – like Vincent’s DVDs – be got on discount if you pre-order. More information is HERE on the OnOne site. I have only recently started using this suite and am loving the possibilities it brings to my work. Even the frames, which I didn’t think I’d have much use for, are truly fantastic, and FocalPoint rocks. Photographers with consumer clients will get tons of bang-for-buck out of Plug In Suite 5, which you can demo or purchase on the OnOne site HERE

This one is an unabashed, shameless, Gear Is Good but Vision Is Better post. You’ve been warned.

There have been a lot of quiet, but enthusiastic ripples about the new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra system, and I finally caved in. I called B&H and talked it through, then placed my order. I’d been tempted before Photoshop World and then I got to play with them, hold them in my hot little hands, and they amazed me. The picture above doesn’t give any sense of scale, but this is a tiny (no, I mean, really tiny) system. The battery and pack is about 8inches tall and weighs 3kgs, or just over 6.5lbs. The head fits in my hand and cranks out 400w seconds – which means it’s WAY more powerful than my Canon 58Os. And with built-in Skyport it’s ready to use wirelessly very quickly. Am I excited about this? Absolutely. Why? Because one of the reasons I don’t do as much work with my Canon flashes as I’d like is that – excuse my language – I find them to be a right pain in the ass. I’m still wrestling with my new Pocket Wizards, which work well when they work. And I find, after brief experiments with it, that the ETT-L stuff is more work than it’s worth. I would actually take a small unit like this on assignment where larger kits are just too large, heavy, and prohibitive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Strobist movement, and in the right setting I like my 580s well enough. But to have more power in such a simple, portable package, with a modelling lamp and built-in Skyport? I’m in love. I’ll let you know just how deep that love goes and if it’s going to last or just be some brief fling powered by gear-lust and infatuation once I’ve had it  a while.You can see more info on the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra HERE.

A couple other housekeeping items I wanted to mention and won’t have time later this week.

1. Matt Brandon’s got a 2010 Calendar for sale over at The Digital Trekker. I haven’t had a printed calendar for years but word on the streets is some people still use these nutty contraptions. If you’re one of those people, you don’t have to admit it here, but check out Matt’s calendar HERE.

2. I was contacted recently by a Vancouver-based photographer, Andy Cotton, who has developed a really cool way of carrying your cameras. It’s called the Cotton Carrier and for outdoor lifestyle and adventure photographers I imagine this will have early adoption – it’s pretty darn cool. Other will want to use them but might have to get over the fact that it makes you look like some kind of Commando/Ninja. But it’s super cool. I’ve played with mine, like the idea and the execution a ton and am just looking for a chance to try it out. Seriously, go take a look at the Cotton Carrier HERE.

3. I got my Gura Gear Kiboko bag last week. You know I love my Think Tank bags, but if there’s one bag they don’t make it’s what I’d call an adventure bag. I wanted something for safaris and more rugged adventures, something that still fit into a tiny overhead bin (like the Embraer or Canada Regional Jets) but still be built to take abuse, haul a ton of gear, and – this was the kicker – have an excellent backpack harness that I could see myself carrying heavy loads over tougher terrain. So when I ordered my bag from the maker, Andy Biggs, himself an accomplished photographer and safari guide, I had high hopes. Man were they ever exceeded. I’ll do a review later, probably after my safari in January, but the Kiboko is incredible. Weighs less than 4lbs, carries a mountain of gear, and is clearly made by someone with control issues and an eye for details. Like I said, review to come, but if you’re looking for a great adventure bag, take a good long look at the GuraGear Kiboko bag (pictured below.)

4. Lastly, how in the world has it taken me so long to get turned out to OnOne Software and their suite of plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom? I knew they were out there. I glanced at the site. I kept thinking, I really need to look into this more. And I never did. And then at Photoshop World (PSW is an evil temptress) I saw a live demo that convinced me I needed to look at them more closely. I’ve played with the tools on and off since yesterday, so this isn’t a review, just a reaction – this stuff rocks. If you do any commercial works directly for clients, especially wedding or portraits, or you like to get a little more artistic with your work, the OnOne Plug-in Suite has some cool tools – I especially love the Focal Point 1 and Photo Tools 2 plug ins. Anyways, take a look at them – in Lightroom they act as an external editor in conjunction with Photoshop, but it’s pretty seemless – it goes out, you do the adjustment, it returns to Lightroom. Love it. OnOne has free demos and videos of all their stuff – find more info about them HERE.

OK, enough gear-freaking, get out there and shoot something you love.

On Thursday I’ll be spending the day with a chunk of Vancouver’s creative community. The conference is called Creative Mix and unlike so many other conferences where you learn skills and hang out in a ghetto of your industry peers (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), this one’s different. Music executives, people from the advertising world, performance artisits, visual artists, and more are getting together to discuss not their skills but the thing that we share in common – Creativity itself. If this were a bunch of photographers we might use the word Vision to describe this foundational asset – the thing from which your craft springs. We’re talking about how the process of creating, coming up with ideas, and living a life of creativity happens.

There will be speakers (I’m speaking about Creativity & Constraint), an after-event Think&Drink, a small short film installation, and more. More information about Creative Mix Vancouver is HERE, but the short strokes: Thursday Oct. 22nd.  at the Roundhouse. Cost is $159, $129 for students. Come, join me there, and invest in the one thing that you actually make a life and a living with – your inspiration.

I had the distinct pleasure of spending a couple days with Dave Taggart recently. Dave flew up to spend a couple days with me working on his craft and getting out a few bugs before he joins us on the Kenya tour in January. In the lead up to our time together I spent some time looking at his work and the image above – called Ready To Fly – was one that jumped out at me, and then lodged itself in my brain.

Ready To Fly is a moving example of Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment.” It’s also a great example of juxtaposition, and an image that has a deeper theme. It’s got humour, too, but as the romans once said – In Risu Veritas – or, In Laughter Truth – there’s something true being said in this moment. It reminds me of lines from a Bruce Cockburn song;

And as I’m walking this prison-camp world
I long for a glimpse of the new life unfurled,
The chrysalis cracking and moistened wings uncurled
like in the vision John saw.

Isn’t it all what we hope for? That the decline of age is bringing us to the cocoon and not only the grave?

It’s also a great example of pulling any element from the frame that doesn’t add to the image – in this case pulling the vibrant colours to let the gesture and symbol take the stage. Thanks to Dave Taggart for letting me share this image. You can see more of his work HERE.

It’s Monday. We’re still eating Turkey up here. I don’t have pictures of turkey, so you get two pigeons instead. Sorry. Times are tight.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss the images I showed in the slideshow I posted on Friday, today I’m busy being thankful. But I’ve got suggestions for you if you’re bored:

1. Go back up your hard-drives. Don’t have a decent back-up solution? Make sure you enter the Drobo Giveway by leaving a comment on last Wednesday’s post HERE.

2. Go read a good book. Don’t have one? Try one of the books recommended in this post or the comments that follow it.

3. Calibrate your monitor. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

4. Get your hands on one, or both of my eBooks- TEN and TEN MORE – available in the Pixelated Image Bookstore HERE. – Heck, if you use the coupon code: TURKEY you can get them for 50% off until my turkey has digested – and I’m giving that to the end of tomorrow (October 13) It’s practically a TWO-FER-ONE!

5. Here’s the crazy one. I put it in here just for fun. Go make some photographs. I know, crazy right?

Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

When I was in Seattle several weeks ago I spent an evening with the good folks at Blackrapid, makers of the R-strap. They plied me with local beer, sat me down on the couch and made me play twenty-questions. This is that interview, in 5 parts. You won’t be able to hear the questions really well, there were some sound issues. But I think I make up for it with lots of awkard moments and corny laughs and stuff. There’s a reason I now prefer to be behind the camera these days and not in front of it. Click here to go to the Blackrapid site and discover those reasons for yourself.

And while we’re on topic, be sure to enter to win a Blackrapid Double Strap. Read the post HERE and leave a comment. I’ll do a random draw when I am back from Vegas.