Whereas in ancient times a big waistline was an indication of prosperity, today it's not. The same goes for your creative business. “The conventional wisdom in our business is that you have to grow and keep moving to survive. We never grew, always stayed tiny, and it serves us very well over the years, allowing us to pick and choose projects, and keeping our financial independence from our clients. We actually have a rather good... read more ›
May
14
May
12
[UPDATE: The criminal charges against him have just been dropped and the judge issued a court order for the release of his camera equipment. Good news for sure, but the points remain: 1) we need documentary shooters shooting the entire gamut, legal and not. 2) we need public defenders who understand this need and are prepared to help us defend it.] This is nuts. LA photographer Jonas Lara has been arrested and faces up to... read more ›
May
11
If you were like me, then it wasn't long ago that you were prophesying that "before long" we'd have implants or cameras on us at all times that recorded everything we see. Well, welcome to the the future. They're not implants, and of course you look like a Cylon if you actually sported these suckers, but the spectacles pictured here are getting closer to the future of 24/7 coverage of human life. There have certainly... read more ›
May
09
Friends: It's the weekend and I'm focused on some personal stuff that could use your help if you're willing. I'm trying to help my favorite non-profit win a $125,000 grant to make emergency repairs to their building, and I'm willing to incent you with about $500 bucks in gear for your help in doing so. If you are interested, please read on. [NEWEST update: in what the sponsoring group, Partners in Preservation, called "an unprecedented... read more ›
May
07
Thanks again to everyone for throwing down your thoughts on how I shot this photo. Lots of good ideas presented in your answers, and lots of you nailed several components of image. Overall, I think Derik got the closest to detailing how we did this, so if Derik will ping us offline, we'll send him a signed copy of TBCITOTWY. In the meantime, here's the debrief of the soccer shot from my portfolio. 1. Environment.... read more ›
May
05
You know I love to deconstruct a photo. And I know from your previous feedback that you love it to, so let's dig into another one. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. It's always been one of the most helpful technical exercises throughout my career to try to dissect the images of others, and so here I am encouraging you to take your shot at this image today. (If you want to... read more ›
May
04
I really enjoy the integration of live-action and motion design production. Turns out that my good friend Will Hyde--the ECD over at Superfad and all around super-talented guy with whom I co-directed a music video a while back (not near as supercool as this stuff here...but fun nonetheless)--has really outdone himself in the latest Sony campaign called "Eye Candy". Great little behind-the-scenes piece here showing the amazing work of Will and his Superfad crew on... read more ›
Apr
29
Hey hey. Reminder that over at creativeLIVE.com, we're bringing in my good buddy Vincent Laforet for a FREE all-weekend-long workshop about making videos with the new breed of HDdSLR cameras. [update: we're LIVE now! check it out. And... you spoke, we listened. For those who couldn't catch it, every night there is a full FREE playback starting 8pm Seattle TIME (gmt -8)...still pay to download if you wanna keep it...] Starting tomorrow, from 9am to... read more ›
Apr
22
If you wait around to read the email when it pours into your inbox, will you ever have time to take pictures? How many ideas will you miss by chasing the next best thing rather than finishing the project you've already started? If you continue taking those crappy gigs that generate dogpoop looking photos or films, will you ever have time to create the ones you want? What is the cost of doing things that... read more ›
Apr
21
One of the things I loved about learning to speak a decent bit of French a few years back was that just when you realized that you knew enough French to get by, THAT's when you realized that you had so much more to learn. Same goes with any second language, or flyfishing, or race car driving or laundry or medicine, yoga, or anything that you can really sink your teeth into. And the same... read more ›
