Jan 03 2011

Jill Waterman: Night, Low Light, New Year’s!

Category: Books, Photographers — Ethan G. Salwen @ 5:44 pm

About three in the morning on Saturday, 1/1/11, I found myself thinking of Jill Waterman. How could I not? As New Year’s Eve was winding down I was setting up my tripod to capture an image of the Southern Cross. For her New Year’s Eve Project, Waterman has been been recording the last (and first) day of each year since 1983 — in locations far and wide.

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New Year's Eve 2003 - Philadelphia. © Jill Waterman

Waterman also wrote the fantastic book Night and Low Light Photography, which is not only a remarkably broad and in-depth guide on the the how-tos of the topic, but also serves as as a wonderful introduction to many image makers who thrive capturing images in the night.

For a number of years, Waterman served as my editor for the magazine of the ASMP, and she always challenged with me fantastic assignments, pushing me to write timely, balanced and valuable articles for the professional community. For Waterman’s editorial guidance I will always be grateful.

AfterCapture Blog_110103_Jill Waterman_2-1As much as I have deeply respected Waterman as an editor of on topics of photography, I gained a much deeper respect for her when I reviewed Night and Low Light Photography. I was simply blown away by the feverish energy and scope of vision that was required to see such an ambitious task completed.

So, given the connection I hold among night photography, New Year’s and Jill Waterman, it didn’t surprise me that on this New Year’s Eve I found myself thinking of Waterman as I made a few nighttime exposures — just for the heck of it. After all, I had thought of Waterman when shooting the Big Dog in Mendoza, Argentina, earlier in the year.

It did come as a surprise — a very pleasant one — when I checked my email this morning and learned from Waterman that she had received some nice (and much deserved) press for her New Year’s Eve Project.

NPR’s The Picture Show blog ran “The New Year’s Eve Project: A Documentary Photo Essay” by Claire O’Neill, which features a gallery of some of Waterman’s great images. (The twelve samples prove that Waterman’s vision is focused on the soft and intimate rather than the garish and obvious.)

Waterman received more kudos for her work this year on December 31 when PDN’s Photo of the Day ran her Global Countdown — an image she captured at Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle in 1999, as one century shifted to the next and while Waterman was doing what she been driven to do for nearly three decades: photographically recording the international, nighttime festivities of New Year’s.

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Oct 08 2010

Stewart Cohen: In Search of Identity

Category: Books, Photographers — Ethan G. Salwen @ 10:43 am

AfterCapture Blog_101007_Stewart Cohen Identity_1“Stewart Cohen is a photographer here in Dallas but of world renown and he’s come out with a new book that’s got portraits of folks,” says the hyper-happy Good Morning Texas reporter as he cheerfully plugs Cohen’s book as a great, last-second Father’s Day present. (Clip below.) “Portraits of folks.” I like that. I bet Cohen did, too.

I’ve interviewed Cohen a number of times and I am always refreshed by his utterly mellow, down-to-earth manner. A commercial photographer specializing in people, Cohen earns top dollar on big jobs for big clients. Before I first talked to Cohen I assumed he might be the rushed and frantic type. However, he invariably picks up the phone with a relaxed, friendly “What’s up, man?”, and he makes it clear that he’s genuinely interested in the answer.

AfterCapture Blog_101007_Stewart Cohen Identity_2Cohen’s book with “portraits of folks” is called Identity: A Photographic Meditation from the Inside Out (Dream Editions Press). It’s a labor-of-love, personal project that Cohen worked on for ten years, only seeing it come off the press earlier this year. I tell the complete story of Cohen’s project in “In Search of Identity,“ written for the latest issue of Rangefinder. I first discussed the topic with Cohen in 2007, and I think the long-term reporting paid off. Not only am I able to share with you Cohen’s perspectives after he has gone to press, but I refer back to Cohen’s earlier perspective — when he thought he ready to go to press, but when, it turns out, he was not even ready to stop photographing for the project.

"T. Boone Pickens" by Steward Cohen.

"T. Boone Pickens" by Steward Cohen.

Throughout “In Search of Identity” I weave in a profile of Cohen, highlighting his career and trying to illuminate a bit of his identity. If you are serious about commercial portrait photography, I’m sure you will appreciate Cohen’s story, and how he remains dedicated to improving his craft after nearly three decades on the job.

I open the piece with a description of Cohen’s image of Erik “Lizardman” Sprague, and then share a quote from Sprague featured in Identity: “I generally find the claim of being unique to be rather trite since we are all by nature individuals and thus unique.”

I continue by saying:

“Sprague’s words lucidly challenge the Continue reading “Stewart Cohen: In Search of Identity”

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Jul 02 2010

Take a Flight to Antarctica

Category: Books, Multimedia & Video, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 3:56 pm

“The way I approach multimedia is to think about each project as a storyteller and then to think about what tools I will need to best tell the story,” says Mary Lynn Price, who since retiring from practicing trial law in 2003 has dedicated herself to video journalism, with specific interest in natural history stories that support conservation efforts. Just as Ralph Clevenger told me, Price explained to me than nothing matters more than thinking about story when putting together “music videos” — her name for multimedia projects that tell stories without narration or even graphics, but just smart use of images and music.

Price proves her music-video storytelling prowess in “C-17 Flight to McMurdo Antarctica.” In less than two minutes, she takes us from baggage security scanning and flight boarding to landing on “The Ice,” having shown us tons of interesting close-ups during this famous, windowless flight.

“Famous” is, um, definitely too strong a word for this particular flight that takes scientists and support staff to the McMurdo Station. But I’m an Antarctic exploration junkie so I’ve sure heard about it plenty, although I could never really imagine what it would be like — until I got taken for a ride with Price’s great documentary vision.

What does it mean that I’m an Antarctic (and Arctic) exploration junkie? It means that I’ve read Alfred Lansing’s “Endurance” three times, twice read “Shackleton’s Forgotten Men” (by the brilliant Lennard Bickel) and at least once just about all of the other classic books about frostbite and suffering in pursuit of knowledge at the southernmost (and northernmost) tip of the world.

I’m kidding about the pursuit of knowledge. Continue reading “Take a Flight to Antarctica”

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Jun 30 2010

Critical Multimedia and Video Learning Resources

Category: Books, Creative Process, Multimedia & Video, Online Resources, Technology Insights — Ethan G. Salwen @ 3:45 pm

AfterCapture Blog_100630_Video_Resources_1-1I’ve been writing a lot about multimedia these days, focusing mainly on providing inspiration. That’s because I think being inspired about what we can do will lead to us figuring out how we can do it. Still, excellent how-to learning resources are critical, so. . .

Two Great Books

From Still to Motion: A photographer’s guide to creating video with your DSLR (New Riders, 2010) is an absolute must have. Written by James Ball, Robbie Carman, Matt Gottshalk and Richard Harrington, From Still to Motion is an engaging, comprehensive techniques manual geared specifically for knowledgeable photographers. Very, very, very cool.

The Lean Forward Moment: Create Compelling Stories for Film, TV and the Web (New Riders, 2009) by Norman Hollyn is a lucid, eye-opening book focused on storytelling and production concepts critical to multimedia success. Drawing from famous movies to teach essential ideas, this book will have a long shelf life.

Three Super Web Sites

DSLRHD.com — “Get into the DSLR Video Game!”

DVInfo.net — “The Digital Video Information Network”

PhotoCineNews.com — “The first blog dedicated to the convergence of photography and video.”

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Jun 02 2010

The Incredible Nature of Ian Shive

Category: Books, Business & Marketing, Multimedia & Video, Photographers — Ethan G. Salwen @ 4:57 pm

AfterCapture Blog_100602_Shive_1“At the end of the day, your multimedia project is only as good as your story,” Ian Shive told me today during a fantastic interview. Both insightful and contagiously enthusiastic regarding the evolving possibilities in multimedia for still photographers, Shive is a 31-year-old nature photographer who turned pro only a few years ago — from a background in marketing major Hollywood motion pictures. Driven and focused, Shive is having tremendous success, recently publishing “The National Parks: Our American Landscape” and having launched Wild Collective, a full-service multimedia production company with partner, Russell Chadwick.

Shive’s portfolio is a strong, lush statement that speaks to his capacity to create top-notch nature imagery. However, to get a much better sense of who Shive is — and to gain inspiration for possibilities in leveraging still images in multimedia projects — watch “Wild Exposure with Ian Shive – Episode One – The Southwest.”

Created with Chadwick, the original idea behind “Wild Exposure” was to create a multimedia promo piece for “Our American Landscape.” The thing is, returning from their 28-day, 7,500-mile National Parks road trip, Shive says the team realized that Chadwick “had shot 36 hours of the most stunning footage you have ever seen in HD.” What to do?

Continue reading “The Incredible Nature of Ian Shive”

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May 11 2010

The Best Photographers Are People, Too

Category: Books, Creative Process, Photographers, The Industry, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 7:57 pm

AfterCapture Blog_100511_Identity_1“The thing I walked away with from this project is that people are people are people,” Stewart Cohen told me today of his “Identity” project. An excellent and accomplished commercial photographer, Cohen has been working on this personal project for ten years, recently reaching a major milestone by publishing “Identity: A Photographic Meditation from the Inside Out” — an elegant, labor-of-love book that includes 50 portraits of famous people who caught Cohen’s interest. Next to each full-frame portrait are words by each subject, in their own handwriting, commenting on their identity.

For “Identity” Cohen made 130 portraits, editing them tightly for the book. Although all his subjects can be labeled “famous,” they do fall into the any one, easily definable category, such as “musicians,” “scientists,” “Nobel Prize winners,” “activists” or “politicians.” Six of Cohen’s subjects point to the breath of his coverage: Bobby McFerrin, Erin Brockovich, Oscar Niemeyer, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking and Jack Kilby. (Jack who? He’s the Nobel prize winner.)

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“Whether your a drifter or bad-ass scientist, the human experience is the human experience,” Cohen told me. “There’s no magic. People become what they want to become.”

Continue reading “The Best Photographers Are People, Too”

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Apr 23 2010

Wonderful Possiblities in “Photographing Nature”

Category: Books — Ethan G. Salwen @ 4:11 pm

AfterCapture Blog_100423_Photographing Nature_1It’s been a long time since I have read a book on photography that has left me so pleased, satisfied and eager to spread the word about it. Having just finished “Photographing Nature,” I find myself downright giddy, which is a reaction I definitely an emotion I have never felt in relation to a book covering photographic techniques. Written by the nature photographer Ralph A. Clevenger, “Photographing Nature” is brilliantly conceived and executed, proving deeply insightful on the most difficult topics of photography to cover — the basics. Clevenger’s voice, uniquely lucid and inspiring, stands out sharply in the din that is the increasing numbers of photographers attempting to share their knowledge.

The fact that “Photographing Nature” is (obviously) about photographing nature makes my enthusiastic response all the more meaningful. Birds, bears and brilliant landscapes simply are not my photographic cup of tea — at least in terms of what I chose to photograph. However, although Clevenger has focused on illuminating the fundamentals of nature photography, he does so with such success that “Photographing Nature” offers tremendous value to an extremely wide range of photographers dedicated to improving their craft — from newbies seeking Photography 101 resources unrelated to nature photography to pros needing a boost of inspiration.

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The subtitle of “Photographing Nature” is “A photo workshop from Brooks Institute’s top nature photography instructor.” While “workshop” might be a good word to use for marketing it does not suggest the full scope of Clevenger’s book. Clevenger definitely has a way of inviting photographers to take action, learning through a handful of specific assignments he suggests. But ultimately this is a stellar book covering conceptual underpinnings and technical specifics related to any photographic specialities. Clevenger’s unwavering focus on nature adds value to “Photographing Nature,” but considering the universal appeal of this book it might have been more appropriate to title it “The Nature of How To Photograph.”

Continue reading “Wonderful Possiblities in “Photographing Nature””

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Nov 06 2009

Visions of Photographic Preparations

Category: Books, Creative Process, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 4:40 pm

ACOF_091106_1_Salwen_071224_1530The very first shot I snapped on Christmas Eve 2007 was my little pile of going-into-the-danger-zone gear — lean and light and ready for the whole night. Actually, I never thought of it as a danger zone — not in the least — but I was a little nervous nonetheless, mostly because I had to be prepared for the totally unexpected, and that’s always a little nerve racking, if exciting.

I share this simple snapshot of my ratty backpack and the contents I have carefully selected to stuff in it because there’s something about that I just love, and I wouldn’t have even snapped it if I hadn’t simply been checking to see if my dusty camera was working. And it makes me think that I find such images from other photographers totally engaging, although I haven’t seen hardly as many as I would like.

I mean, isn’t it great to see those somehow sexy, revealing images of studios in action, taken from behind the camera, all the lights, power packs, tangles of cords, gobos and gobo-knows what exploding everywhere, ordered chaos.

Maybe sexy is not the right word. But for all Continue reading “Visions of Photographic Preparations”

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Oct 29 2009

Richard Anderson In Person

Category: AfterCapture & Rangefinder Articles, Books, Photographers — Ethan G. Salwen @ 10:43 am
No, this is not Richard Anderson, but it is one of his images.

No, this is not Richard Anderson. But it is one of his images.

Photographer, digital standards expert and photography community activist Richard Anderson is incredibly mild mannered — definitely easy to miss in the massive crowds of PhotoPlus Expo, but definitely worth tracking down to see face-to-face. That’s what I did last Thursday, borrowing a cell phone from Judy Herrmann (Thanks, Judy. My cheap, three-year-old Argentine cell phone is no iPhone), and meeting up with Anderson to shoot the breeze in person, which we hadn’t done in two years.

I talk to Anderson fairly often, as he is always incredibly generous with his time and knowledge, and he provides me information to improve my reporting, and also acts as a sounding board on the issues most important to cover.

As the driving force behind dpBestflow.org, the co-author of Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook and the princial author of UPDIG, Anderson knows a heck of lot about all things related to the broad, critical topic of digital best practices — from in-camera exposure to final file hand-off.

The thing is, such a statement makes Anderson sound like Continue reading “Richard Anderson In Person”

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Jul 06 2009

Leaning Forward into Storytelling

Category: Books, Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 10:37 am

The Lean Forward MomentPhotographers are storytellers. Storytelling is about creating change. Visual storytelling requires creating visual change in a way that advances a story. (This I just picked up from Norman Hollyn, but we’ll get to him in a second.) Let me go on. . .

In moviemaking, something called a “logline” is used to describe a scene in a way that allows the moviemaker to focus on how to best tell the story of that scene in relation to the overall movie (which, it turns out, can also be defined by a logline).
Continue reading “Leaning Forward into Storytelling”

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