Eat At Joe's

Quite Pleased With Myself, Actually

2008-07-19T06:25:00.006-04:00

CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Pobereskin family is all here. There are, as far as we know (and there was a fair bit of discussion about this last night), only eleven of us worldwide and given the geographic distribution of the members of the clan it is quite a feat.

The last all encompassing gathering of the Pobereskins was, I think, in the summer of 1996, in Chatham, Massachusets on Cape Cod. For some reason, and I can't really think of why, there was no family picture made on that occasion. In fact, the previous family picture, above, was made in 1977, almost twenty years earlier, and it didn't include everyone (my older brother, Stu, and my cousin, Mo, were MIA). But we're all here this time, slightly different line-up, and we now boast two photographers... I'm counting my younger cousin Sarah's boyfriend, Theo Chalmers, even though he's not officially a family member. (I didn't see him with a camera... yet)

We're all here for my Aunt Sarah's (grandmother of the aforementioned cousin) 90th birthday, convening at my cousin Ann's house. I spoke with Ann on Thursday afternoon and she was wondering if I was going to bring my camera, the object of the discussion fairly obvious to you at this point. After we'd discussed the matter at hand I decided to look-up the last family portrait and was pleased that I was able to locate, pull and scan a thirty one year old print from my file in just under two minutes. Quite pleased with myself, actually.
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Above: Pobereskin Family 1977, Orangeburg, NY - Nikon F, 28/2.8 Nikkor Lens, Kodak Tri-X Pan film

Independence Day

2008-07-04T05:55:00.000-04:00

Breakfast In America

2008-07-03T09:49:00.000-04:00

Those of you who've been following along already know that I've just moved to Chicagoland from the New York City area. Aside from the general feeling of being a fish out of water, the ponds here are quite different from those I've previously inhabited. Give you an example: the New York area is a hilly, sometimes mountainous, landscape. Here in Chicagoland, the landscape is flat! There's not even the slightest bit of a hill anywhere around here for miles and miles (that's why they have tornadoes tearing-up the trailer parks... no hills!). And, Chicago (proper) excepted, there's no tall buildings either.

I know what you're thinking. I know it because some of you have said it directly: What are you (meaning me) going to shoot there, Joe? In fact, my good pal Jimmy Winstead e-mailed the other day, lamenting (in solidarity with me) that there aren't any bridges in Chicago! He's wondering what the hell I'm gonna do for excitement??

Well friends, don't despair on my account. I've found a remarkable feature of the mid-western landscape, something we just don't have back home in abundance but they're everywhere out here... yeah, water towers!

Yep, you guessed it, just before sunrise this morning I went out in search of water towers. Found some, too. (actually, I've been eyeballing water towers ever since I arrived, just now acting on it)

And being out just before sunrise means I had to wake up early and forgo breakfast, which, if you know me well, you know it's not a big deal because I never eat breakfast normally. But being out and about early makes a boy powerfully hungry so I had a hankering for something breakfast-like. Now, what do you suppose a hungry guy's gonna go for at 6:00 AM, especially if the subject water tower is parked right behind a McDonald's?

Those of you who own a VitaMix blender might be thinking about a shake made of banana, fresh coconut and coconut milk, some dandelions.... you know, a green organic breakfast. Well, sorry, that's not me. Wanna know what I did? (See above!!)

PS: You may have noticed that a couple of these were made with my fish-eye lens. Yes, it's the very same fish-eye lens I wrote about back in April... the one that broke in half and I was thinking was a total loss. The wizards at Canon Professional Services fixed it!

If It's Saturday.....

2008-06-30T05:26:00.006-04:00

From 1977 to 1998, twenty one years, I lived (mostly) in the Brooklyn (NYC) neighborhood, Park Slope. I have lots of fond memories of the place, but one of my favorite is shopping in the Farmers' Market located at the Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park. So much variety from so many local farms, and in a city that already has more than its share of variety in foodstuffs, really makes a place livable.

I believe I've previously mentioned that more and more recently I'm into locally grown, organic foods so...

Fast-forward to this past weekend and I'm finally out and about in Chicagoland. If it's Saturday, there must be a farmers' market for me to kick around in, and wouldn't you know it, I found several. There's the Deerfield Farmers' Market, the hometown favorite; The Chicago Botanic Gardens Farmers' Market, in Glencoe, a few miles away; and the farmers' market in Lincoln Park, on the northeast side of Chicago proper (very easy to get to, you can take the "el").

I chose the Lincoln Park location as it also gave me a plethora of additional wandering opportunities, the others will have to wait. Here are a number of things that I saw, in and out of the produce aisle.
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PS: Thanks to the humans at Google for determining that I'm a real person and lifting my suspension, allowing me to continue blogging here. Would a spammer send a thank-you note? JP
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All above: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 400

Dear Abby (more Q & A)

2008-06-17T08:41:00.001-04:00

Dear Joe,

One of my potential client has, "a lot of photographers who are willing to shoot for credits but I do not know if you have set rates that you need to fulfill? Please let me know"... Is this is really a negotiation or is the client just trying to lowball me?

Signed "Devalued In Detroit"

Dear Devalued,

I live near Milwaukee Avenue and there's a gas station on the corner which charges $4.199/gallon for regular gasoline. The owner and I haven't yet worked out a deal as to how many magazine photo credits I'll need to show him to get my gasoline, largely because he figures I can show those credits at Whole Foods as well and that would be double-dipping. Nor have we worked out, because I've been too busy driving to count, how many vehicles and pedestrians I pass daily that might see his brand name on my car if I were to give him credit for filling my tank... we just can't seem to establish the value. Until then, I'm having to pay cash.

Conversely, the Whole Foods manager wants to know how many dinner guests I have on a daily basis to whom I might mention that I shop in her store? She also can't figure out how to square that with corporate for their cut of the profitable part of my "mention" of their store during dinner.

I can't figure out how the card reader on the gas pumps or the WF will know I'm shoving magazine pages through the slot, the machines seem to want all the type going one way AND it can only read stuff which is coded on the back with a magnetic stripe. Damn it, none of the clients I work for put magnetic stripes on the reverse of their pages!! They print something called advertising there instead, and the advertisers pay with something called money, which, because I'm a photographer... even though I have 25 years experience... I still haven't gotten the hang of managing because none of my clients wants to pay with that!

It took me only a few days to find my house, it took almost two months of negotiation with Wachovia Mortgage to get them to accept photo credits in lieu of cash to pay the loan, but I'm giving them carbon footprint credits back in exchange for them letting me scan the pages with my credit line and e-mail them PDFs instead of sending checks in the mail (those USPS trucks burn diesel at the rate of a gallon per hour!!) so we've worked that out.

Everyone else seems to be cool as their products already seem to contain their name..... the Ford logo is prominently displayed on my car (5 credits), Levi Strauss has their name on my back pockets and on all the rivets (well, the rivets are kind of small, most need glasses to read them), my computers have those cute little Apples all over and my printer says Epson, the cameras and lenses all say Canon more than once and they give me those cute little green hats to wear. My tool box says Stanley right on top so they're covered and...

Anyway, I saw a really cute bumper sticker on a car in Chicago the other day. It said: "Will work for bandwidth."

Amen!

Joe P

It's Flag Day Again

2008-06-14T10:59:00.002-04:00

Two hundred and thirty one years after the Continental Congress formally adopted the stars and stripes design it's Flag Day again. Powerful icon, national symbol, lightning rod for political discourse, the stars and stripes still flies, still provokes, still inspires Americans (and others) everywhere. Here's a few of my favorites. Happy Flag Day 2008.
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Right: Auditions for the movie "Hair," Central Park, NYC 1976 - Nikon F, 28/2.8 Nikkor Lens, Kodachrome 25

Below (top): Liberty Deli, Elizabeth NJ - Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100

Below (bottom): Parking Lot, New York City - Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100

Just One More From The Garden

2008-06-12T04:33:00.003-04:00

I'm so into the flower thing now I could just shit!
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Above: Canon EOS-5D, 50/2.5 Canon Compact-Macro Lens EF, ISO 100

Rainy Days & Mondays Never Bring Me Down

2008-06-10T09:54:00.002-04:00

I've been in Chicagoland for about a month now, finally getting settled, unpacked the last box just the other day. People are still asking me why I moved and my stock answer seems to be, "It's not for the weather!" Not for the love of driving, either. Traffic here really sucks.

Yeah, so now that I'm all moved in and ready to go back to work and back to blogging, you'd think I'd have something weighty on my mind, something important to say. Nope!

There are no pressing issues at the moment. Legislation is pending, we've all had our say, just have to wait and see what happens.

I do have some phone calls to make, and I'm going to do that in a little bit, trying to rebuild the business, in Chicago, that I walked away from in New York. But that's too heavy for today, I need some lighter fare.

I know! I've got it!! I can write about the weather!!!

It rained here most of the weekend, yesterday too. The sun's out now, a beautiful crystal clear day with a cloudless sky. But yesterday? Yuck!

They say that every cloud has a silver lining and so it is with Chicago weather. One of the fringe benefits of all that rain is that when it stops, colors pop, everything becomes that much more beautiful.

I joined a friend for dinner last night and was struck by the colors of the flowers in the back yard garden. The textures, the shapes, the patterens, the colors... bright and vibrant..... a garden photographer's dream.

Because it had just rained, everything was wet, too. I didn't need to go searching for a spray bottle. Mother Nature put it all in place for me.

If you recall, the last time I did any back yard photography I was in an urban, fairly gritty setting in Maplewood, New Jersey, one of the most beautiful suburbs of New York City. Yesterday I was in a pretty, serene, suburb-like, back yard in the middle of Chicago, maybe America's second largest city.

You may also recall that the last time I did any back yard shooting I was griping about the inequity of my locale versus that of my friends' Eliot and Mark. Not to continue in a jealous vein, but I think I may well be catching up.

Oh, well, it's just about ten o'clock. I guess it's time I stopped goofing around and got down to the real business of photography: finding new clients and new projects to shoot.

But just as important is always carrying a camera, it's important to shoot pictures every day.

You know what I've been up to.

What did you shoot yesterday?
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All above: Canon EOS-5D, 50/2.5 Canon Compact-Macro Lens EF, ISO 100

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner..... Again

2008-05-20T16:43:00.005-04:00

Well, they're back! Those pesky Senators & House of Representatives are at it again, trying to push through a so-called Orphan Works amendment when the rest of us aren't looking. Well, we are looking and we have a lot to say about it.

Orphan Works has been the subject of heated conversation and debate on virtually all of the professional forums for the past few weeks. I last wrote about it in September of 2006, the last time an Orphan Works amendment died in committee on Capitol Hill. Had I not been right in the middle of an interstate move for the past month I might have had more to say on the subject in this space, but those of you who know me know I can't keep my mouth shut on such an important topic for too long.

This morning, the New York Times published an Op-Ed piece by Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford, who wrote in opposition to the Orphan Works amendment. Turns out it was the perfect venue for me to pontificate in reply and so I did (click on the hot link, above, to go to the original NY Times article). The Times thought my remarks lucid enough to revise the web page (see illustration, above) and excerpt the operative passage, the full text follows.....

Thank you for your opinion opposing the Orphan Works amendment.

Copyright protection was first instituted by Congress in 1790. The idea behind copyright protection is that it gives creators the incentive to create with the guarantee that they will be able to benefit from their creations.

Is copyright an arcane notion as some have suggested? I think not. Why? Because Congress has reaffirmed and strengthened copyright protection consistently throughout the past hundred years. The Copyright Act of 1909, the Copyright Act of 1976 (the primary basis of copyright law in the US) and The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (passed by *unanimous vote* in the Senate) all support the notion that copyright protection is a valid and contemporary concept. The copyright laws are the basis for the licensing of rights in all intellectual property.

Does this seem like an arcane idea to you? Not to me. It seems very much alive.

There are currently two versions of the Orphan Works amendment under consideration. Of the two, I and my colleagues prefer the House version as the language is more favorable to creators than in the Senate version, which is wholly unacceptable. That said, I would prefer that neither of these bills pass.

The theft of intellectual property is as much a theft as the theft of cash... or, for that matter, a car.

If motor vehicle laws were amended to provide for the use of Orphaned Vehicles, all you would need to do is walk down the street, see a desirable parked car and scream, "Hey, anyone own this Corvette?" Hearing no response in a few seconds time, you could drive it away as yours. Having made a "reasonable and diligent effort" (self-defined) to locate the owner, is it now your car? No, it's grand theft!

Copyright law is just fine the way it is. The only ones who really want to change it are those who would like carte blanche to avoid paying for the usage of artworks. This tendency to undervalue art strikes me as odd considering that everything we know... from the clothes we wear, to the chairs we sit in, the kitchen sink, the computers we use, the web sites we visit, our cars and trains and buses and planes, coffee makers, pens, carpets, textiles, paper towels (I could go on) ...is designed by artists who deserve compensation as their incentive to continue to enrich our lives.

The Orphan Works amendments do no justice to creators, or society as a whole, and I urge all members of Congress to vote, "No."

Joseph Pobereskin
Vice-President,
Chicago/Midwest Chapter,
American Society of Media Photographers
Deerfield, Illinois

I Am, I Said (New York In The Rear View)

2008-05-02T00:08:00.007-04:00

WHEELING, IL - I'm sitting at my desk away from home at the Candlewood Suites. I'm a stone's throw from Chicago and twelve hours from officially becoming a resident of Illinois, mulling over the relative merits of being a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker.....

...in the mid-West.

While I've got some good reasons for moving half way across the country, I'm feeling the same pain Neil Diamond laid down in his song, I Am, I Said. "I'm New York City born and raised and now I'm lost between two shores. LA's fine but it ain't home, New York's home but it ain't mine no more."

I've lived in the New York area all my life, made a lot of good friends there. I'll miss them all, "Making me lonelier still."

Bye-bye Fisheye | How To Evaluate Your Insurance Coverage

2008-04-21T11:08:00.021-04:00

One of my favorite, but maybe least-used, lenses is my 15mm Fisheye. I remember the day I bought it. I casually drifted in to Ken Hansen Photographic... actually, there was nothing casual about it, nobody goes from Brooklyn to Manhattan and then casually drifts into a jewelry store (which is what Kenny's place was like) on the 15th floor of a Madison Avenue office building... and dropped a little more than $925 on a lens that I knew I was going to have a hard time justifying. I had to invent all kinds of things to do with that lens to make it pay-off, and pay-off it did... in spades! I've made some of my favorite pictures with that lens and easily earned a 40x ROI.

So, when my Canon EOS-5D unexpectedly flew from my bag, with the 15mm riding up front, and took a nose dive into the carpeted floor of my sister's guest bedroom I was mildly annoyed... until I reached to retrieve it and noticed that the lens barrel had broken leaving most of the lens on the floor and the lens mount still attached to the camera. Now I was upset!

I'm certain this lens is a total loss, I don't think it can be repaired. I also still have to drive over to Canon and get my camera checked-out. If you look at the image of the broken lens you'll see it's soft in some places and not in others. The impact may well have done damage to the camera's lens mount. I'm also going to call my insurance broker and make my first claim in over 20 years of being in business.

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Top: Canon EOS-5D, 50/2.5 Canon Compact-Macro Lens EF, ISO 800

Faux Pas sover

2008-04-20T20:19:00.003-04:00

Whole Foods Market, Millburn, New Jersey - 1st Day Of Passover 2008

No comment necessary.
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Above: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 500

People We've Met: James Mansour

2008-04-19T06:58:00.001-04:00

I received an e-mail notice from Getty Images today informing me that my royalties statement for March 2008 was available on-line and I should log-in to the Getty Images Contributors web site and see if it was: a) a normal month; b) a so-so month; or, c) an I Hit The Lottery month. Well, they don't put it to you quite that way, but it can really be only one of the three. Turned out to be a fairly normal month, but there was an interesting item in there.

One of my New York City images was licensed by Sephora... you know Sephora... the mall cosmetics store, as decor. That's cool. Next time I'm buying myself some perfume or lipstick I'll cruise around and see exactly how..... okay, okay, I'm just kidding. I do not wear lipstick or perfume.

And I don't have to go into the store to find out how the image was used, either. I know the guy who likely designed the interior of those stores. And The Limited, and Express, and Victoria's Secret, and Movado, and others too numerous to mention.

James Mansour is an interior designer extraordinaire and works on high-end retail accounts. His client list is impressive and I'm not going to bore your with those details, but I have to admit to being slightly excited when the gentleman at the other end of my telephone asked me to photograph one of the hottest interior designers in the country. As a photographer, it's a real turn-on to work in an artfully designed space as opposed to, say, a run-of-the-mill office. You just know you're going to make a great picture. James Mansour, photographed for Retail Interiors magazine (UK).
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Above: Canon EOS-1N, 70~200/2.8 Canon EF L Ultrasonic lens, Fujichrome Velvia 50 film

Testing - Check, Check, Check, Hey, Hey, 1, 2

2008-04-18T07:49:00.004-04:00

Do You See What I See?

Got an e-mail from a new reader this morning (yeah!) who wants to know why I'm using only half the window, the left side. Now I have to ask: do you see what I'm seeing?

I see a blog that looks like the image below..... a column of articles on the left and a column of links on the right. Apparently, it's a Windows anomaly, which can be fixed by adjusting the Text Size in the View menu.

Additionally, there are hot links embedded in the text. The text should appear black and the links should be blue-ish. Also, sometimes the Headline is also a hot link. You'll just have to mouse over that text and see if your cursor changes into one of those little white-gloved hands.

When you click a hot link in the text, a new window should open with the referred site inside it. When you click a hot link in the Headline, your browser will redirect to the referred site and this blog will vanish (until you push your back button).

Okay, now that we're all on the same page I need to ask a favor: If you still don't see what I see, please let me know. Zap an e-mail over to joe@pobereskin.com. Thanks.

Rock on!

ASMP's Strictly Business 2 - WOW!

2008-04-17T11:24:00.014-04:00

I’ve just returned from Chicago where I attended ASMP’s Strictly Business 2 seminars. I can’t imagine that one could be an ASMP member and not know what the Strictly Business 2 seminars encompassed, but for those readers who managed to avoid the deluge of nearly daily e-mail invitations to SB2, the curriculum included: Business Basics; Copyright, Paperwork and Releases; Digital Essentials; Pricing & Negotiating; Managing Change; Negotiating Training (and more Negotiating Training); Marketing To Move Your Business Forward; Digital Workflow; Business Workflow To Bring You Profits; Taking Control Of Your Career; Is Your Website Doing All It Can To Get You Work?

I’ve always thought I had a pretty good handle on how to conduct my business, but I came home with so much new information, so many good ideas to implement, that I don’t know where to start. I’m hoping that by sharing some of what I learned with you now, I might just clarify things in my own mind so I can get going.

Now that I think about it, I realize that perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is the importance of using PLUS Packs in my Estimating/Invoicing routine. Even though I was a beta-tester/commenter for PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) I must confess to being too lazy to fully implement it properly in my workflow. After attending John Harrington's seminar, Business Workflow To Bring You Profits, I’ve learned a better way, and I'm now hooked on PLUS.

While I’m speaking in acronyms, let me throw out another one that’s sure to be of increasing importance in our careers: UPDIG. There is such increased liability for photographers shooting digital images, compared to when we were all using film, that failure to learn proper digital imaging technique can actually ruin your business, especially if you’re sued by your client(s) for negligence (yes, it’s happened more than once).

In fact, the problems due to a lack of digital savvy among photographers are so widespread that many ad agencies and magazines are requesting film again. This backlash against digital imaging is largely due to the failure of photographers to understand how to use digital imaging properly. Enter UPDIG: Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines. UPDIG is an industry coalition led by ASMP in cooperation with all of the other major photographic trade organizations worldwide. In addition to the usual suspects such as ACMP, AOP, APA, ASPP, CAPIC, EP, NPPA, PACA, PPA & SAA... UPDIG is also supported by PLUS.

Are you making the connection? The use of best practices in your technical and business affairs is becoming more and more important in the digital age. I strongly encourage all of you to learn, adopt and blend these knowledge bases into your day-to-day business operations.

No discussion of the implementation of best practices in our businesses would be complete without stressing the importance of learning highly effective marketing techniques. Utilization of best practices adds value to your services, and learning to communicate that value to your prospective clients is increasingly paramount today.

Another of the priceless seminars at Strictly Business 2 was Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua’s, Marketing To Move Your Business Forward. I believe that Leslie’s program was the most helpful, the most precious, 90 minutes I’ve ever spent in a classroom. Leslie taught each of us how to define our unique visual voice and verbalize it. Even more useful, we learned how to get the most bang for our marketing buck, whatever our budget. A virtual synopsis of Leslie’s extensive experience and expertise, and other pearls of wisdom, is available through her web site, burnsautoparts.com.

One of the things I heard, repeatedly, from SB2 Chicago attendees was this: "If I learn one more thing my brain's going to explode." ...and that was lunch time on Saturday, we still had another day and a half to go.

If/when ASMP stages Strictly Business again, we're going to need a bigger hotel. The ballroom was packed, every seat filled, standees were lining the wall in the back. And you know it's a great program when the hotel employees, like the guy who ran the projector near my seat, are paying attention to the presentation. You should have seen the look on that guy's face... he was thrilled, wonderstruck, awed and amazed. Me too!

The Strictly Business 2 programs were immensely valuable, the presenters were insanely great, but the big deal of the day was behind door number three: meeting everyone in-person!! You're just not going to get that cruising Internet blogs and web sites. Please don’t pass-up the opportunity to attend seminars like these, it’s really too important to your careers.

ASMP’s It’s Your Business seminar series, mini SB2s, are touring the Chapters constantly. You owe it to yourself to attend as many of these seminars as possible, even if you think you know well the subject being taught. You’ll be amazed at what you don’t know you don’t know, and even more amazed when you learn it.
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All above: Leica D-LUX 3, 28~112/2.8~4.9 Leitz DC Vario-Elmarit lens, ISO 100

etc, etc, eclectic

2008-04-03T07:56:00.009-04:00

eclectic
adjective
an eclectic mix of party music wide-ranging, broad-based, extensive, comprehensive, encyclopedic; varied, diverse, all-embracing, multifaceted, multifarious, heterogeneous, miscellaneous, assorted.

It's been brought to my attention that in my Blogger profile I omitted Van Morrison from my list of favorite music. Shiiiit! (as they say in Texas), I've got two iPods!

Yeah, Van Morrison too, I wasn't going to list everyone... Elvis P, Elvis C, Stones, Johnny Cash, Roseanne Cash, Hank, Hank Jr, Waylon Jennings, Shooter Jennings, Cross-Canadian Ragweed, George Jones, Beau Brummels, Steve Earle, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Alice Cooper, Frank Sinatra, Milton Nascimento, Ray Charles, Carole King, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Allman Bros, BTO, Bad Co, Badfinger, Bananarama, The Band, The Bangles, Beach Boys, Warren Zevon, Zombies, Dave Mason, Dave Matthews, Dave Clark, David Bowie, Deep Purple, CSN&Y, Turtles, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, U2, Tommy James & The Shondells (I'm free-associating now), Travelling Wilburys, Temptations, Steely Dan (big-time!), Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone (I'm on a roll), Searchers, Sheryl Crow, Sam The Sham & The Pharohs, Dixie Chicks, Donovan, Donna Summer (some), Dusty Springfield, Diana Krall, Diana Ross, Flaco Jiménez, Rodney Crowell, Animals/War, Los Lobos, Merle Haggard, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Gary US Bonds, Gin Blossoms (!), John Hiatt, John Cougar, John Prine, John Lennon, Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Rivers, Joe Jackson, Joe Cocker, Joe Tex, Joe South, Marvelettes, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, did I mention Joni Mitchell? Little Richard? Loggins & Messina? Weird Al Yancovic? ...I'll spare you the rest of my musical favorites.

Oh... don't forget Pink Floyd! ...or King Harvest, The Kinks, Kris Kristofferson, Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Lyle Lovett, Donovan, The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Vanilla Fudge, Van Halen, oh c'mon.

Did I mention I used to play in a band?

Boston, Billy Joe Shaver, Billy Joel, Billie Holiday, etc, etc, etc, enough already!!

My list of Favorite Movies isn't complete either.

People We've Met: G. David Low

2008-03-31T05:59:00.011-04:00

I first opened for business in February, 1986. We had a huge Grand Opening party in the studio on Valentine's Day to celebrate, but it would be another two weeks before the studio was actually finished. All the debris was shoveled into the shop area and the equipment was locked in the darkroom, the floor swept and some lights hung, the volume was turned up to ten and the party was on. I didn't make a formal count, but my two partners and I invited literally everyone we knew, and most of them came, so we're fairly confident that there were at least 400 people in our loft that night.

Two months later, the studio was open about six weeks and after shooting a few jobs and waiting for the payments to arrive, I was absolutely penniless, stone cold flat broke. While sweating over how to pay the bills, my phone rang with yet another assignment. It was a really big job and I asked for an advance to be sent overnight via FedEx. The client agreed and I began booking flights, car rentals and hotel rooms.

Perfect timing being what it is, and not being available to me, the check didn't arrive for a few days. So... trusting in G-d and American Express, I hit the road for Amarillo, embarking on the first leg of a whirlwind seventeen city tour (18 days).

A few days later I was driving through Colorado, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, to Lockheed Martin's Denver Aerospace facility. The plant, where they manufacture missiles, rocket boosters, space shuttles and other top-secret stuff, was backed up to the mountain. A good location considering the cold war was still in high gear, you could see the Russians coming for a good thirty miles.

It seemed like everything I wanted to shoot that day was classified and I was keen for a high-tech opportunity. We turned a corner and entered a huge hangar. At the far end was a space shuttle and at my end was a mock-up of the Solar Max satellite. Between the satellite and the shuttle was David Low, an astronaut training for a mission to repair Solar Max.

"Here's a good shot," I thought I'd said to myself. I guess I actually said it aloud because my guide once again said, "Sorry, that's classified." Just then, about midway between where we were and where the shuttle was, a small door opened and a group of second graders entered with their little disposable cameras flashing like nobody's business. "Are you sure I can't shoot this?"

G. David Low, an astronaut for 12 years, flew three shuttle missions, orbiting Earth more than 540 times. His father, George M. Low, was the former NASA director who first suggested to President Kennedy in 1960 that the United States could send an astronaut to walk on the moon within 10 years. David Low passed away last week, he was 52.
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Above: Nikon F3, 300mm/f4.0 Nikkor lens, Kodachrome 64 film

People We've Met: Kay Booth

2008-03-18T06:06:00.004-04:00

Photographers should never take vacations, at least I shouldn't. Every time I do, somebody calls and tries to book me for a job during my vacation, and I end up losing out because I'm not going to be around. This happens to me all the time and at one point I was getting kind of tired of turning down work, but also resigned to my lot in life.

My wife had planned a family vacation to Acadia National Park, and we were going to meet another couple and their son in Maine and share a house for a week whilst taking in the extraordinary natural beauty of the place. Needless to say, Jan was packing our bags when the phone rang.

This time it was Syuzi Pakhchyan at Buyside magazine in San Francisco, calling to see if I could shoot a cover story for the September issue. I'd worked on about a dozen stories with Syuzi in the preceding months and I didn't want to turn her away. All she needed was a couple of portraits for the story and, here's the best part: as long as I have it delivered by mid-August that would be cool, because, she said, "I'm going on vacation next week so just get it to me by the end of the following week."

It was a Thursday and I was going on vacation the next day, Friday. I'd be back in a week and had plenty of time to shoot it and meet the deadline, so I called the subject's office to arrange the shoot for the week after our (Syuzi's & my) respective vacations.

Kay Booth is Director of Equity Research at Bear Stearns & Co in New York. The only problem was that on Saturday she was flying to London for two weeks. My plan was to wake the family at 5:00 AM and hit the road for Maine. Nobody but me really liked that plan anyway so I suggested to Kay that we shoot the pictures the following day, and I asked if that would be okay with her? To my surprise she said yes, but it would have to be really early because she was really busy. She asked me to be there at 7:30 AM.

I couldn't have planned this better if I'd thought about it for a week! The family could sleep another hour and a half... we'd get in the minivan and go to Manhattan, dump the car in a garage, they would go eat breakfast at a restaurant and I would shoot the story, double back and meet them an hour and a half later and we'd be on the road to Maine by nine.

Never heard of Kay Booth, have you? Well, she's not really famous, but she is very well-known in her field. I mean, really, if she wasn't why would she be on the cover of Buyside?

Anyway, I wanted to squeeze this in today because I shot the picture in the trading room at Bear Stearns, a company that was worth $170 a share a year ago, $30 a share on Friday afternoon and was sold to JP Morgan Chase for $2 a share yesterday. If I wait any longer.....
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Above: Canon EOS-A2, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, Fujichrome Provia 100 film

People We've Met: Vincent Sardi, Jr.

2008-03-17T11:59:00.003-04:00

New friends always ask me if I've ever photographed any celebrities. I think that they think that what separates guys like me from, say, wedding photographers, is that I must know some famous people. Well... I do know some famous people, at least I've met some, but let's get something straight here. I've met some famous people, but we're not best friends. This is the first in a series of pictures of people I've met (I used we in the title because I usually meet these people with my assistant at my side, hence we). Remember: I've met and photographed these people but they're not my pals, really, so don't be too impressed. I picked this portrait to be first because it was really my entry into the Environmental Portrait biz.

Vincent Sardi, Jr. I was still an assistant when I photographed Sardi. I'd been working for Ted Horowitz when one afternoon he called to say he'd been offered a job by a small restaurant trade magazine and the fee was too small for him to consider it, and he wanted to know if I would shoot it. I spoke to the editor and she was adamant about having me shoot the job on medium format film. I was a poor schmo who didn't own a medium format camera, so I called Ted back and told him he had to loan me his Hasselblads so I could shoot this. After all, he got me into it. He agreed and so I went over to his place, got the cameras and shot the portrait you see above.

I hired my friend Jim Mercer to assist me on this. We went to the restaurant, just off Times Square, and spent the morning looking around and setting up lights and stuff. At one point during the set-up I recall Sardi came in and offered us some coffee, which we accepted. The coffee came and I was busy doing this and that and the coffee was getting cold. Jim whispered in my ear that I should drink the coffee, it's likely going to be the only time I ever drink a $7.00 cup of coffee. Of course, in 1983, we'd not yet heard of Starbuck's.
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Above: Hasselblad 500C, 150/4.0 Zeiss Sonnar lens, Kodak Ektachrome 64 film

It's Snowing, It's Snowing!

2008-02-22T11:56:00.016-05:00

I woke-up this morning to find a foot and a half of snow on the ground. No surprise really. My friend Rayna warned me of this in an e-mail last night saying, "Call me tomorrow. We should be stuck in the house, with snow coming." Not that I don't trust her, I do, but it was well after midnight when I went to bed and there wasn't so much as a single snowflake to be seen anywhere.

I saw a similar forecast for Wednesday evening and it didn't snow at all. Good thing, too, because I was planning on driving the 18 miles to Manhattan to attend the New York Photogroup Salon, something I used to do monthly but haven't in a long while. I was looking forward to it. Looking forward to reconnecting face-to-face as well as to introducing my friend David Verdini to the group.

The Salon was sure to be interesting (and it was!) with presentations by Rafael Fuchs and Howard Schatz (Howard is one of my all-time favorite photographers). I was also pleased to be able to make a small contribution by identifying the proper video-out adapter for Rafael's Macbook laptop and connecting it to the digital projector.

The Salon, as expected, was as creatively stimulating as I remembered it to be. Largely the effort of Rich Pomerantz as the curator, perhaps with the help of Bill Westheimer who used to tackle that task pretty-much singlehandedly, this is an evening very well spent. It's not often that one can see and discuss the latest work of some of the best contemporary photographers of our time, as well as meet them in-person and engage in a dialog with them about their work or the business or whatever, maybe make a new friend or two. A most valuable investment of an evening once a month.

(the following images were shot in damned-near total darkness at ISO 1600, hence the noise)

I sure am glad I didn't have to drive home in the snow. I was also glad to be home early enough to see the best part of the lunar eclipse with my son, Alex, but I digress.

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Snow images: Canon EOS-5D, 70~200/2.8 Canon Zoom Lens EF L Ultrasonic, ISO 200
Salon images: Leica D-LUX 3, 28~112/2.8~4.9 Leitz DC Vario-Elmarit lens, ISO 1600

(sub)Urban Succulents

2008-02-18T07:11:00.002-05:00

Where do I start? Contrast? Jealousy? Parody? Or is it just plain flattery? Honestly, I don't know.

In terms of contrast, well, let's just say that I like Maplewood about as much as I like Chicago. Neither is my home town, but both are appealing. Jealousy? This is interesting. My friend Eliot Crowley out in California has made a series of images he calls Santa Barbara Succulents and they're beautiful. My kind of pictures, really.

Then my other friend, Mark Harmel, also in California, did something very similar. I'm not certain that he's even aware of Eliot's pictures, in fact I don't think the two know each other..... but, again, my kind of pictures!

Flattery? Parody? I want to make pictures like that too, but I don't have a cactus garden handy. I do have a back yard..... well, I call it a back yard but it's really an alley.

I live in the urban part of a New York suburb, right in the center of the village, on the third floor of an apartment building on the main street. I'm, technically, in a leafy burb but in reality I live smack in the middle of an urban jungle. So I have an alley in the back of my building ("where the people congregate in shame") and rather than beautiful plants I have old screens, broken gates, decaying brick, etc, etc.

Even though I'm scenically challenged, I want to make images of succulents too, so I've taken the liberty of reinterpreting the art form with a decidedly ce-ment point of view.
(sub)Urban Succulents.

Urban decay, decrepit structures, peeling paint, dirty floor mats from the restaurant kitchen, discarded ice cubes laced with cigarette butts, too many parked cars, body parts. We've got it all here in Maplewood, and we've got it all stashed in the alley behind my place.
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All above: Canon EOS-5D, 50/2.5 Canon Compact-Macro Lens EF, ISO 100

My Kind Of Town, Chicago Is.....

2008-02-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

Being a native New Yorker, the following compliment doesn't come easily for me, but: I love Chicago! I mean, let's face it, I'm from New York, the Big Apple. New York is big time, it's the big Kahuna of cities. New York City is open all night with 24 hour everything. A guy like me can get used to that (in-fact, I have!). But I love Chicago!!

I spent the past weekend in Chicagoland, something I do pretty regularly these days. And this wasn't any old weekend, oh no, it was Super Bowl weekend. And Sunday morning, right after my breakfast phone call, still at Sandy's Restaurant in Highwood, I was predicting (okay, bragging) to the gambling crowd that the NY Giants would win the Super Bowl! Man, they all thought I was nuts!!

Anyway, I had a great weekend!!! Too bad I had to come home.

You see, the more time I spend in Chicago the more I like it! As Sammy Cahn wrote...
"And each time I leave, Chicago is
Tuggin' my sleeve, Chicago is
The Wrigley Building, Chicago is
The Union Stockyard, Chicago is
One town that won't let you down
It's my kind of town"

Of course, each time I leave I seem to exit Chicago differently. That's because Chicago traffic is murder. Chicagoans say that there's really only two seasons, Winter & Construction, and that leads to confusion on the highway. This morning I took I-94 East to I-80 East, another new route.

Getting there was no small feat either. I arrived in the middle of a big snow storm. Maybe not the biggest they've ever seen, but it was big enough to make my life misreable. It dumped eight inches of snow right in the middle of I-294. Hey, for all I know, it didn't snow anywhere else in the vicinity that day, but it made the last twenty minutes a two hour ride! I spent thirteen hours behind the wheel of a twelve hour drive. Clear weather & smooth sailing for eight hundred miles, but as soon as I turned North out of Indiana... bam! Big snow!!

And it didn't let up. It snowed all weekend. It was still snowing last night. You find a taxi in the middle of a Chicago snow storm!

Yeah, but Chicago's great! It's sometimes called America's Second City, but it's really a first class place. Chicago has lots of attractions and a lot that attracts me. And where else can you... what other major city can you go to, and stroll around all day and night, without anyone asking you for money?
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All above: Leica D-LUX 3, 28~112/2.8~4.9 Leitz DC Vario-Elmarit lens, ISO 100

Bored At The Meeting? Not!

2008-01-25T06:31:00.000-05:00

The ASMP New Jersey Chapter board of directors met at Ellen Denuto's house last night. You may wonder what it is we do at these meetings. We discuss upcoming programs, old business, new business, the business (we can't help it), etc, etc. Here are some of the people involved...

Ellen Denuto, Vice-President, on the pending sale of Getty Images.

Dennis Connors, Director, discussing an upcoming program he's producing about digital video.

Bill Cress, Director, who coined the phrase that serves as our trademark, "Membership Doesn't Cost, It Pays!" discussing our upcoming membership drive.

David Verdini, General Member, on the upcoming Apple Aperture program he's producing.

Tom Stillman, Recording Secretary, put down his pen to talk about the upcoming chapter election.

Not pictured: Kimberlee Piper, Director; Suzanne Poor, Director; Sergio Burani, General Member; Rich Green, General Member; Joe P, the Prez (I was making the pictures).
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All above: Leica D-LUX 3, 28~112/2.8~4.9 Leitz DC Vario-Elmarit lens, ISO 1600

Parting Shot - 2007

2007-12-31T06:54:00.000-05:00

Flag Decal On Forklift, Truckstop, Niles, Michigan

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Above: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100

Highpretension Is A Disease?

2007-12-31T06:17:00.000-05:00

In the aftermath of the recent dust-up over Richard Prince's exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum I found myself at the Whitney Museum, just a few blocks away, viewing, "Danny Lyon: Montage, Film, and Still Photography."

If you're not aware of the controversy over the Prince exhibit you should click the link to the NY Times article about it. In a nutshell, he's copied another photographer's (Jim Krantz's) work as seen in a cigarette ad, enlarged it to mammoth proportion and hung it on the wall of a major museum. His other "appropriations" have sold in galleries for more than $1.5 million each.

I'll tell you: that's really art! No, not the picture on the wall, but being able to copy something and sell it for more than a million dollars, is the art of pretension, and pretension is the currency of the art world.

Anyway, there I was at the Whitney, and Danny Lyon's photography had been a big influence on my photography during my formative years. His art is unpretentious (or so I thought) so seeing his exhibit was a high point of my weekend... until I discovered one of his lesser-known images. It was a very small image, nicely framed, and had one of those little ID tags next to it.

You've seen those tags. They tell you what the title is and then the medium. Typical to see something like "gelatin silver print," a/k/a plain old black and white print. What I saw, the thing that ruined it for me, was: "Internal Dye Diffusion Transfer Print." English translation: SX-70 picture.

I think this is the beginning of a new affliction I'm calling highpretension. And, hey... as soon as I can cultivate a suitable amount of grandiloquence, I'm going to be a millionaire!

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Above: Polaroid SX-70 Alpha, 116mm/f8.0 lens, Polaroid SX-70 Instant Film