Hey?! That’s My Cab

© joSon

joSon is another photographer with great work and great branding. You can definitely get a sense of his style and vision - he is also in AtEdge.

Find out what drives you. Find what makes you want to get out of bed everyday. Fuel that desire to be the best you can with relentless belief in yourself. Embrace competition and enjoy others’ success. Avoid jealousy or envy and hold on dearly to your passion. Never let that go. Shoot more - with lights or without lights. Work on composition, color, space, direction, lighting and make notes of your mistakes. Continue learning how to see - how to really SEE. Visualize as much as possible. Look ahead and keep going. Breathe.

CLICHE OF THE DAY:

DON’T JUST SPEND ALL YOUR TIME DOING, WITHOUT FIRST BEING.

© van ditthavong

Last month I had an assignment to shoot the band Danity Kane - yes from MTV’s Making the Band with P. Diddy. They were at Six Flags Over Texas. I had literally three minutes with them and I shot a total of six frames. one. two. three. four. five. six. “Thanks ladies!” - and then they were on stage. I had one small flash with umbrella at 7 o’clock. If I had more time I would have had one of them eating some cotton candy and may be pulled back more to see some of the roller coaster in the back. Oh well - next time.

Earlier this year I walked into an Urban Outfitters (by the way I always love looking at their catalogs - terrific photography) - and browsed their books section. I stumbled upon Paul Arden’s “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be.” I practically carry this book wherever I go and read and reread it again and again. Sometimes it’s the little push that I need. Hop over to Amazon.com. Here’s a chapter title:

Do not covet your ideas. Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.

© van ditthavong

I’ve been in the woods of West Virginia for the past week. No phone service. No internet service. Only once a day when we would head into town - and when we were in town it was for 5 to 10 minutes. It was harder than I thought to be somewhat technologically free - but a nice personal challenge. We were outside of the historic town of Beverly, WV. Above is a shot using just a small silver reflector.

© gary knight

This is an image from Gary Knight’s terrific photo essay on the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thanks Nat!

“The Congolese are generally not the most willing of subjects particularly when they think that the photographer will somehow profit from the exchange at their expense.

After a week or two struggling to work on stories on the Congo River I decided to engage in a collaboration with some of the villagers and city dwellers in and around Kisingani. I set up a portable studio (my hotel bed sheet, some gaffer tape and anything in the vicinity I could use to hang it on) and invited passers by or merchants in the area to be photographed with anything or anyone they desired. Most of them were photographed with the tools of their trade or with friends. It’s probably the most fun I have ever had with a camera.”

© van ditthavong

I’ve been waiting for over a year to find the right ice cream man for my “Portrait of the American Dream” series. I finally found him.

I use to think that the goal of making a portrait is capturing someone’s “essence.” Photography was a way to find the REAL you - a search for truth. However, even though we may eventually find these truths - it is not always fact. It has taken me some time to come to terms with this revelation. For some reason I didn’t want to think a photographer had that much control. I guess in my mind, if I was so influential, I wasn’t being sympathetic to the subject. I wanted the entire sitting to be a complete collaboration. I wanted photography to be a more natural, more organic process - which when I think about it now, is a huge contradiction in itself.

So today, as I continue to fall into this massive black hole known as Photography - when I begin to make a portrait I am beginning to tell a story. It is my story. It is my truth. I am still completely aware and sympathetic to the subject - it just won’t be their story. I am fine with that. I am fine that viewers will learn more about the photographer than the sitter.

CLICHE OF THE DAY:

TALENT IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

One of my favorite books of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I remember I couldn’t put it down. I was thinking about reading it again but decided this summer to start with a gigantic text book called “The Story of Art.” It’s a tremendous read (something I would have hated when in school). E.H. Gombrich is the writer who takes you on a journey from the cave paintings to today’s experimental art. I haven’t finished yet - I just successfully got out of the Dark Ages - but I relish each page and each period. Here’s an excerpt - actually here is the first two sentences from the introduction:

“The is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.”

Now that’s a statement. So what is Art? Coincidentally, yesterday my friend Max Gerber sent me a link to a wonderful article from Slate titled Art or Not - please go click on the slide-show.

I saw Vincent Dixon speak at a PDN on the Road series.  I remember him being very geniune and sincere.  I also remember him saying that he LOVES advertising and advertising photography.  You can tell by his work.  It is fantastic.

A friend of mine introduced me to this sweet site ffffound. From their website:

About FFFFOUND!

FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user’s tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!

© michele laurita

I love the moodiness of Michele Laurita’s work. There’s a real calmness to her images that I enjoy. I think it’s the pools or splashes of light that she uses that pulls me in.

The Humble Arts Group Show No. 24 is currently exhibiting. Take a visit.

I came across Viisual about two months ago. I first saw their ad in PDN and found it very interesting. It was clean, simple and direct - and I liked that. After visiting their site www.viisual.com, I was impressed by the design and interface - once again it was clean, simple and direct. Here is what Viisual is all about (from the website):

Viisual produces quality creative resources that help art directors, art buyers, designers, corporations and businesses find outstanding photographers for advertising, editorial and fine art needs. Viisual.com is a premiere online destination for imagery and ideas to inspire creative visions.

Quality communication and fast access to the right artists and imagery are core components of the creative industry. This is where Viisual focuses its energy. “Viisual is an agile breed of creative service that will quickly adapt to the specific needs of creative buyers and visual artists,” says Viisual founder, Bruno Ciccone.
Founder

Bruno Ciccone has a diverse professional background in the development of online, search and promotional solutions and commercial photography. Most recently, he served at Workbook as Director of Online Services, leaving in late 2006 to develop Viisual.

It’s easy to float around and have your head in the clouds. But growing a creative services business requires more than vision - it requires initiative, organization and a rock solid plan. So once you:

* Develop Your brand - (i.e. your unique qualities/shooting style)
* Establish your goals + objectives that are specific, measureable, actionable, realistic and time-specific - (i.e. increase editorial commissions this year by 20%)
* Know your market and competitors - (i.e. environmental portraiture, Chris Buck, Peter Yang)
* Define your strategies - (i.e. grow your commercial business through advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations)
* Develop a budget - (i.e. a first quarter campaign budget for direct mail = $2000)
* Execute your plan and measure your success and failures (i.e. 2nd quarter Direct Mail promotion with “Laughing Baby” received 30% less calls than the 1st quarter “Smiling Girl” image)

You persevere and do it all over again.

CLICHE OF THE DAY:

LUCK IS WHEN PREPARATION AND OPPORTUNITY MEET.

© van ditthavong

I made my first book with blurb.com. I’ve heard good things about them from various folks, but wanted to try them out myself. So after receiving it the other day, here are my thoughts:

- fast service (from uploading files, to approval, to receiving package at my doorstep - this all took about 4 business days…wow!)
- printing (not that great - just okay - or may be my standards are too high. The cover was better printed than the inside pages - images are a bit too pixelated for me.)
- cost (13 bucks a book - not bad!)
- overall (6 out of 10. I just need a better quality print, but if you need a simple proof book this is the route to take.)

Here’s another image from the book:

© van ditthavong

© van ditthavong

I’ve been staring at the side of this house for two weeks now. At 7:15 pm the light just hits it so beautifully. I knew I had to use if for a sitting somehow. Location has become a big element of my work these past few years - I love driving or walking around and staring. Getting lost is probably the best thing to do because you really start to examine and see the surroundings with a more inquisitive eye.

I had a professor once tell me that there are three things you can’t argue about - religion, politics, and the beauty of another man’s wife. Well there might be a fourth - best portrait photographer. You can debate till the end of time of who the greatest portrait photographer might be (Penn, Newman, Avedon, Arbus, etc…) but some days I can only think of only one person - August Sander.

Ed McCulloch is shooting some really cool stuff. He’s also a great and generous guy. Ed responded to an email of mine with some speed. I really appreciated that. You can find Ed in Workbook, Atlpick, Photoserve, Viisual and more. Visit his site at www.edshoots.com.

I almost had a mental/visual overload yesterday. After pouring over tons of photographers’ websites, unread magazines (PDNs, American Photo-s, Texas Monthly-s, ESPN-s, American Way-s, etc..) and seeing all the upcoming deadlines and extended deadlines for contests - I really thought I heard that “warning - malfunction” voice. Red sirens were blasting and lights were flashing. I had to abort somehow. So I found comfort in the words of the late creative genius and advertising guru Paul Arden:

“Do not try to win awards. Nearly everybody likes to win awards. Awards create glamour and glamour creates income. But beware. Awards are judged in committee by consensus of what is known. In other words, what is in fashion. But originality can’t be fashionable, because it hasn’t as yet had the approval of the committee. Do not try to follow fashion. Be true to your subject and you will be far more likely to create something that is timeless.

That’s where the true art lies.”

Thank you Mr. Arden.