Portrait Not as View of the Soul, But as Personal Advertising?What is the relationship between portrait as collaboration and portrait as unbiased recording? If the eyes are windows to the soul, and if in advance of a portrait sitting you’ve basically had the windows washed and lined up all the furniture inside and put on your favorite clothes for an open house, are the photos that result from that sitting any less “real” than a... read more ›
Feb
20
Feb
13
...you were wrong. Household appliance manufacturing giant, General Electric, recently announced their entry into the digital photography game. Does that give any indication of how gi-normous this market is becoming? The name of their project is exactly what we'd expect: General Imaging.As an anecdote illustrating how big it's getting:I was recently on a dance floor in Manhattan at 2:30 in the morning with about 250 of my closest friends (ahem...). At one point, I pulled... read more ›
Feb
08
Check out this trailer! The film was made some time ago (2000 by my quick check), but it's being released here in a limited fashion quite soon. I'm guessing it's going to make some waves if people can get out of their chairs to go see it. I'm loving how it's stylized. ...can't wait to try to wrap my mind around what looks to be a colorful, antention deficit, Thai, spaghetti-western, with 50's pastiche and... read more ›
Feb
07
The nicest thing about the web these days, beyond email spam, file sharing, lovelygirl15, porn, and access to the latest NASDAQ numbers, is obviously the huge transfer of relevant information. I've written a fair bit on the somewhat-controversial (that's another issue...) term coined by Tim O'Reilly, Web 2.0, and what it means to the photography industry. I was happy to have been quoted or tracked back in some great blogs, by some talented journalists: Jay... read more ›
Feb
04
This is not a rant. It's a page out of Business School 101.If you've ever seen/heard one of my speaking engagements, you've probably heard me talk about the Black Box. It's the name I've given to "what the world of advertising photography looks like to a new or aspiring photographer." Something goes it one end of the box (the request, the pitch, the job offer, etc) and something comes out the other end (finished images,... read more ›
Jan
30
So what am I, the frickin ASMP sales guy? Naw. Just found another good deal to pass your way: If you're an ASMP member, you can save up to 17% on stuff from Apple. Seems from this and my earlier post that Apple and Adobe are really going head to head on a couple angles: (1)connecting with the pro shooter (all these promos aimed at the pro market), and (2)fighting over marketshare between Aperture and... read more ›
Jan
30
You may have heard the news today: Adobe Lightroom emerges from beta testing and is for sale beginning February 19th. If you're running the beta, it will expire on February 28th. It will be priced near $300 BUT I've just learned from my good friends at ASMP.org that if act now, you can save $100. Purchase Lightroom direct from Adobe here to get the discount.And, if you're a photographer and you're NOT already a member... read more ›
Jan
29
I just returned from a location shoot in the Cascade Mountains, east of Seattle today. The weather had us guessing at several points during the day, but for the most part it went according to plan. Plan? That's right, as someone who is often hired to shoot outdoors, I've been forced to become quite the weatherman, doing my best to anticipate and plan for Mother Nature's ways. She always plays hard to get, but it... read more ›
Jan
20
I attended a gathering in Seattle this week to hear David Lynch speak about his creative process, filmmaking, and how his creative successes stem--according to him--in large part from his 33-year, twice-a-day commitment to transcendental meditation.Wow.What a trip this talk was! I adore many of Lynch's films: Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet, etc. Some classics, for sure. But I must say that I was deeply intrigued by how his meditation gets him to [paraphrase]... read more ›
Jan
16
As as investment, I own a small commercial building not far from our studio in Seattle's historic Greenlake neighborhood. It's a quaint brick building from the 1920's with tons of character and charm and I've intentionally filled it with tenants with creative businesses: architects, 3-D designers, filmmakers, etc. You get the picture.It got vandalized today. Tagged. Basically spray paint for the sake of spray paint on bricks and metalwork. I admit, when my friend Marc... read more ›
