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Archive | May, 2010

Two Short Films. Two Amazing People.

By Chase on May 26, 2010

Two short films. Two amazing people I’d love for you to meet.

1. Soren. You know TV’s reality drama “The Deadliest Catch” about the world’s most dangerous profession. Well Soren Sorenson has lived that hardcore commercial fisherman’s life for 50 years, and he’s lived it without an ounce of bravado or showmanship, despite his record-breaking catches and the fact that 6 of his boats have ended up on the bottom of the ocean. Now at 72 years old, you can bet he’s seen a lot of change in his life.

2. Krishna. As the world “goes green” most of us are doing our part by finding recycling bins and seeking cars with better gas mileage. Krishna Nadella has taken on a bigger mission. Having emigrated from India to the US at 23 years old, and with inspiration from his grandmother’s primitive recycling efforts back home, he has set out to completely redefine what it means to recycle plastic–and it’s working. By intercepting millions of pounds of “trash” from our landfills and making plastics infinitely recyclable, he’s poised to change the world. By licensing a patent from a US University, and putting it to use for us all, he is one of the most innovative minds I’ve ever met.

Both these 4 minute documentaries are shorts in film series I’ve been commissioned to create for Russell Investments. I’m exploring topics Continue Reading →

The Long-Ass Curvy Road

By Chase on May 25, 2010

You have all the talent in the world. You’ve landed some great gigs. You are the hardest working photographer you know. But you can’t figure out why you haven’t “arrived”.

Well, first thing’s first. Have we ever really “arrived”? I have been at it for more than a decade. I can make a case for some measure of success, but I can say for sure that I haven’t “arrived” at anything but a little more freedom, a better work ethic, and better vision. And that’s keeping me going.

Second thing. This stuff of course all matters deeply–the talent, the gigs, the hard work – I’ve talked about those before as “get in the door” sorts of qualities. But you know what else matters that’s rarely discussed? You’ve gotta be in the game–not just AT the game, but IN the game. For years.

It’s my personal experience and the experience of many “successful” artists I know that nothing of real substance ever happens fast enough. We’re impatient bastards, all of us. A career is not made from one picture or one campaign, or even three or five. It’s not your first exhibition that gets you the bump you want to get, it’s your 10th or your 100th.

I can’t say for sure what “having arrived” is, but I know that part of it is staying on the long-ass curvy road for a good long while. Better love what you’re doing.

PDN Photo Annual 2010

By Chase on May 24, 2010

by Ambroise Tezenas

The votes are in and the jury is out. The 2010 PDN Photo Annual is in the mail and live over at PDN online. Go check it out here. My fav category this year was the books. My least fav was the advertising. Go figure.

Overall some really great work. I’m especially excited about books by Martin Parr, Mario Giacomelli. The shot above from Ambroise Tezenas also caught my eye in an initial buzz through the stuff. China now open for “disaster tourism”.

Spend some time clicking through the stuff and pickup the issue. It’s worthwhile. Additional call outs for winners of Marty Forscher Fellowship to Walter Astrada and Kayana Szymczak; Arnold Newman Prize winner Emily Schiffer.

If, in your perusing the award site, you stumble upon a SanDisk New Zealand campaign that scored in the Advertising category, and The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You, that earned a fist bump in the Photo Book category…you should assume that both awards were given out purely on a sympathy basis.

Below The Surface: The Underwater Project

By Chase on May 20, 2010

The most powerful images in documentary photography projects are rarely the ones on the surface of the issue, they’re the ones that go deeper. Australian documentary photographer, Mark Tipple, has taken this concept quite literally in a new series called “The Underwater Project”.

I’ve always been intrigued by what happens below the surface, like what’s happening where we can’t see. Coming from a surfing background I used to wonder what happens when we’re duck-diving, like, what it looks like from a different angle…I used to surf with a small video camera and housing attached to my helmet…but that sucked. I looked for a new approach to capture what I was seeking, which basically meant getting off the surfboard.

His approach applies to us all. More gorgeous images from Mark, plus a video after the jump Continue Reading →

I’d Be More Creative If…

By Chase on May 18, 2010

Even at our most creative moments, we could go further if it were not for that little voice inside our head.

And that little voice puts up roadblocks. Sometimes those roadblocks are real, but more often those roadblocks are completely constructed from nothing but irrational fear or the most basic of actions. Perhaps knowing that other people share many of the same silly roadblocks–and even knowing what some of them are–will help us all move through them.

So today’s post is simple. Let’s put it out there. Just complete the sentence “I’d be more creative if…”

I’ll start us off. I’d be more creative if I more regularly created the quietness in my life that creativity requires.

Now it’s your turn. Continue Reading →

Aperture 3 and Fundamentals of Photography on creativeLIVE

By Chase on May 16, 2010

I recently kicked off the world’s first live, FREE creative classroom and it’s growing every week. We had a blast hosting my pal Vince Laforet for a 3-day workshop on HDdSLR Cinema 2 weeks ago (amazing downloads here). And now there are two more photography classes you should know about over at creativeLIVE.com…

First: want to edit and manage your photos, view video, and combine them all using one software? Starting tomorrow, Monday 5/16 at 3pm PDT (GMT -8) Scott Bourne will bring you inside the Apple’s revolutionary Aperture 3. It’s the first post-production software that offers multimedia capability. Scott will show you all the new features of Aperture 3.0 and how he uses it in real-world applications. [I was lucky enough to get to use Aperture 3 early. Check out a little video here]

Enroll here for Scott’s informative class. This is a part 1 of a 3-part class. As with all creativeLIVE classes, the live feed is free. Pay to download if you wanna put it on your hard drive, ipod, or wherever you want.

Course Information:
* Course: Aperture 3
* Instructor: Scott Bourne
* When: Monday May 17, Monday May 24, and Monday May 31 (3pm PDT or -8 GMT)

Second: New to photography or want to brush up on the fundamentals? This is a course that covers all the basics, from cameras and gear to composition, technique, and how-to. Check out John Greengo’s Fundamentals of Photography course. Enroll here and attend for free. It’s a weekly 10 part course Continue Reading →

Sagmeister on Keeping It Real

By Chase on May 14, 2010

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 track record, because we do select projects carefully. Most of our ideas don’t eat dust but glimpse the light of day because we find it much more helpful to spend some serious time and effort before we start working on a project, rather than suffer through it afterwards.” – Stefan Sagmeister, Designer

Your client list can get big. Your staff can get big. Your hopes can get big. Productions can get big. Even invoices can get big. But none of that means a thing unless you’re doing work that you believe in and doing it well. And only you can measure that for yourself. Where do you want to go and what do you want to do?

Bigger is only better when you’re talking vision. Continue Reading →

Photography Is Not A Crime

By Chase on May 12, 2010

[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 a year in prison for ‘aiding and abetting’ two graffiti artists while documenting their work in February. Lara pleaded not guilty, wisely citing it’s within his rights as a photographer to be at the scene documenting the work of the artists. But here’s the rub: his public defender, David Gottesmann, has so far refused to consider his rights as a photographer as part of the defense.

PDN reports, “When he was arrested, Lara was working on a long-term project for which he has documented the work and creative processes of 30 visual artists. Lara met the two graffiti artists at an abandoned building in South Central Los Angeles to photograph the pair as they worked on the illegal mural. The photographer says the officers were understanding when he explained his reason for being at the scene. They told him they needed to process him, and that he would be free to go in the morning. After advising Lara that it would be dangerous to leave his car in the neighborhood, one of the officers even drove Lara’s car to the police station so he could avoid a towing fee.

Once he got to the police station, however, Lara’s situation became much more precarious. The police held Lara for eight hours before telling him he was being charged with felony vandalism. He was held for 26 hours in total…before his wife bailed him out.”

Now call me crazy, but this is pure bullsh*t. I’m not advocating crime, I’m advocating Continue Reading →

The Future Is Here

By Chase on May 11, 2010

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 been a number of prototypes out there for a while, but it looks like they’re starting to hit their stride. IMHO the marketing vids for these guys are…er…ah…yeah. But the tech specs of these Immortal glasses are getting interesting:

_4GB storage space
_ Resolution 736×480 (Video)
_ 3 Mega Pixels
_ 25 frames per second
_ Two-button control for ease of use
_ Built in 500mAh battery (2.5 hours of running time) Voltage 5V DC
_Interchangeable lenses; polarized flame orange, polarized dark gray and clear.

On one hand, it’s clear that these glasses are pushing POV and helmet-cam to the next dimension. On the other hand, and perhaps more interesting is that we’re finally having to face the question: do we want our lives recorded all the time?

Personally, I’m Continue Reading →

Lend a Hand and I’ll Give You Some G-Tech

By Chase on May 9, 2010

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 photo finish" I'm soooo happy and grateful and pround to announce that WE DID IT! Town Hall wins $125,000 grant. Thank you thank you thank you!]

[UPDATE: we went to 1st but are now back in 2nd, so we need your help more than ever. Don't forget to follow the instructions below, it's a little tricky. And more importantly, please vote everyday. Karma points. ]

Background: Town Hall Seattle is a cultural center based in Seattle that showcases diverse music, arts and humanities, civic discourse, and world culture programming. They feature the broadest range of any programming that I’ve ever known–from hosting cultural heavy hitters like David Lynch, Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Barak Obama, Al Gore, and Arianna Huffington all the way to community activists, children’s choirs, poets, Seattle’s hip hop acts, and the local Spelling Bee. It’s simply an amazing cultural and creative hub.

Here’s the good news: the grant winner is decided purely by a popular vote online. The most votes wins. Here’s the challenge: Currently Town Hall is in 2nd place by 1% and the voting ends THIS Wednesday May 12. It would mean the world to me and the my community if you would vote. And here’s some incentive from yours truly. 100% honor system here. IF you vote, and IF leave a comment below saying that you’ve voted I will choose one person from the comment section below (bonus points for roping in your friends to vote too…) and send them a super-awesome 2 TB worth of G-Tech hard drive love (+/- $500 value) from my personal stash. We roll G-Tech drives exclusively around here, and I’m expressly grateful for their support.

Now go forth and vote. It’s easy:
1. Visit the grant award site here and select ‘New User’ in the ‘Vote Now’ box.
2. Register with a name, email and password. (Don’t be scared off by this. It’s harmless and you can check the don’t contact me box!)
3. Scroll down to Town Hall and click on it. A check will appear, but you’re not done yet.
4. IMPORTANT: now scroll to bottom of the page and click VOTE.
5. Awesome. Now that you’re registered and logged in, you can vote everyday thru Wednesday 12th. Bonus karma points if you vote today, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Yes, whoever built this voting widget wrote code like it was 1998, but don’t let that get in your way. We all Continue Reading →

Deconstruct This Photo 3.0 – Revealed

By Chase on May 7, 2010

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. This shot is NOT a composite. It’s all shot in camera. The model is standing in front of a brightly colored, yellow, concrete wall that has a ton of structure to it.

Why? I love doing as much work as possible in camera. Cool locations, great textures, and technical savvy help pull images together more naturally.

2. Main Light. The main light is a bare naked bulb from a single strobe head sporting a dish (reflector that aims the beam).

Why? The light is meant to be harsh…trying to exaggerate a technique you’ll see here in the next section…

3. Fill Light. The fill light is nothing more than the rich fiery ball in the sky that is the setting sun. It’s late afternoon in December, so the light is quite rich. I’ve slightly underexposed the image to keep it rich. That texture of the wall is exaggerated as the sun rakes across the groves in the wall.

Why? The sun is a great fill light. Often overlooked. If you’ve got the room in your exposure to employ it, give it a shot. It’s free and you don’t even need a light stand or an assistant to dial it in.

4. Hacking the camera’s sync speed. From an earlier post I wrote on the subject…”The principle is simple… Continue Reading →

Deconstruct This Photo 3.0

By Chase on May 5, 2010

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 check out some previous versions of this exercise, check here and here.)

So now tell me–yes YOU–how in the hell was this shot made? Overexposed mess? Studio shot? Test shot? A masterpiece? How’s it lit? The circumstances? The camera settings? Tricks? This one is a bit more abstract than previous shots, so I’m dying to have you pick it apart. Especially the purists.

I’ll reveal the details in a followup post. The person who gets the closest gets a signed book and a shout out and whatever else I can muster. Don’t be shy. Love to hear your thoughts.

Superfad Delivers the Superdope for Sony

By Chase on May 4, 2010

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 the Phantom HD cinema camera at 1000 frames per second. I realize we don’t all have these means, but it’s to fantasize about what’s possible

See the 2 minute finished piece after the jump Continue Reading →