Archive | January, 2011

Avoid Being Hassled By The Cops While Shooting Pictures

By on January 27, 2011

Shortly after 9/11 I was working with a small crew shooting an advertisement for Microsoft Mobile on a street corner in downtown Seattle directly across from the Federal Building. Within minutes of breaking out a couple large reflectors and clicking away a few frames, two armed officers came over and shut down our operation saying “you can’t photograph federal buildings”. I assured them the building was not the subject of the image. Nonetheless they shut us down. And in the many years since 9/11, we’ve of course seen and heard numerous incidents/reports/cases of cops unjustly and illegally harassing photographers for similar stuff.

Although this approach was systematically the standard for almost a decade, that treatment was officially laid to rest between August and October 2010 with a settlement between the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Feds that stated it was okay to photograph Federal Courthouse buildings. TODAY however, the NYTimes Lens Blog reports Continue Reading →

Flash Bus Tour: Learn to Light with McNally & Strobist

By on January 26, 2011

hobby_mcnally

These guys are a blast one on one. Put them together? Watch out. It’s a combo of awesomeness, mad science, MythBusters and the two guys in the balcony from the Muppets….

That said, if you wanna learn small flash lighting, no doubt this will be a great class and great value… Learn the fundamentals and the tricks of the trade from my homies David Hobby (Strobist) and Joe McNally. Two of the best photography instructors in the biz live out of a bus and teach the world to light stuff: 29 cities and 13,000 miles–kicking off in Seattle this March.

A map of the cities after the jump as well as links to their registration site. Continue Reading →

Win A MacBook For a Snapshot: The Best Camera Challenge

By on January 24, 2011

challenge

Hi friends. I’ve ranted for years how mobile phone photography changed my outlook on a bunch of things…creativity born from constraints, the immediacy of the moment, digital sharing, the democratization of creativity, and on and on. As you may know, the ideals and the principle that ‘the best camera is the one that’s with you’ certainly captured my attention, led to my app, a book, a community, etc

But here’s a question: have YOU actually made any cool pictures with your mobile phone? If so, I want to see them. In fact, so does the world and PDN Magazine. So much is the case that the nice folks at PDN have put together a mobile phone photo contest called The Best Camera Challenge.

Entrance fee: $1/image, or 7 for $5. Enter as many as you like.
Categories: People, Places, Things
Prizes: an Apple MacBook for the Grand Prize and lots of other stuff for category winners. Winning images will be featured on PDN. (and I’ll laud you with praise in my social channels too…)
Enter here: at www.thebestcamerachallenge.com

You have one week to enter from today. Deadline is January 31. Details after the jump and at www.thebestcamerachallenge.com

Continue Reading →

Photo of the Day. Like it Or Not…?

By on January 20, 2011

chasejarvis_split head

Here’s the Photo of the Day.

Like it or not? I’d love to know, and it would be good for everyone if you told me why.

[BTW, this image is from our “OGI” file. What’s that? Well… Continue Reading →

Procrastination is The Thief of Time

By on January 17, 2011

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late.’ – MLK jr.

Brilliant reminders about ‘doing’ rather than ‘thinking of doing’ have been popping up all over for me in the past 48 hours…several over the weekend, the above from Seth’s blog this morning. I’m taking it as a sign to spread the word. If you were thinking of putting off that portrait to tomorrow, rather than today, or thinking of not picking up the phone and calling that client, skipping that research for your next short film, or whatever it might be… perhaps you should re-consider and do it today. I sure am.

Chase Jarvis RAW: Aerial Photography Over New Zealand [video]

By on January 12, 2011

I originally started traveling to New Zealand for commercial photo and video work. Visually, there are few place on earth that exude the beauty of that place AND it has the benefit of being opposite seasonally (opposite hemisphere) from most of the brands/agencies etc that I work for. Great 6 month lead time for campaign creation, media buying, etc. It’s geographically very dense with variety as well. It’s a home run for productions. As such I’ve been heading down there to shoot campaigns for many years.

It was in these travels for commercial work that I fell in love with the New Zealand landscape and started a personal project aiming to capture that beauty from the air. Nothing too serious…more casual initially. But in the past 3 years it has grown more serious with each return. I’ve learned that mountains and landscapes can often photograph a lot like people. They have moods, personalities, essences. Capturing those has become the goal of my Aerial New Zealand project.

At the beginning of this Chase Jarvis RAW vid, you’ll see the door come off of the helicopter, you’ll see my shooting rig, and some safety measures…but the real fun begins after that where we’re buzzing above the Southern Alps of New Zealand, up canyons, and across deltas making pictures–both still and moving. Flying around in a helicopter above what I’d argue is one-of-if-not-THE most beautiful landscape in the world is humbling and stunning and so many things at the same time–not to mention just effing cool. I hope you enjoy the vid. There’s a handful of still images from the end of the video after the jump… Continue Reading →

Aperture vs. Photoshop in B&W Post Production: More Notes From Scott

By on January 11, 2011
Aperture Finished File

Aperture Finished File

Photoshop Finished File

Photoshop Finished File

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Note: NO, we didn’t have too much eggnog and accidentally re-publish a post from just before the holidays… We did, however, get a TON of reader requests from a lot of y’all who are using less and less Photoshop, and asked Scott if he could get similar results in Aperture or Lightroom. Short answer is YES. To that end, Scotty re-worked this image using Aperture and wanted to share his process with you here. Take it away Scott!
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Update: I just heard that this black & white work from Seattle 100 was just featured today in Communication Arts! I’m a huge fan of Comm Arts… very humbled and very stoked. Please check it out here. [thx Lou Maxon!]
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The above file on the left was processed entirely in Aperture. The above file on the right is the Photoshop version that we discussed before the holidays. One can certainly nitpick to find details that are different between the two, I know I did, but that would be missing the point.

Speaking of the point, let me get to it. These two images were processed with different RAW algorithms, retouched, adjusted, smooth, and sharpened with different tools with different abilities and nuances. People will rant and rave ad nauseum online about the differences between software offerings. Yet despite all of the obvious discrepancies between the Aperture and Photoshop methods, the net result is very much the same. The vision is important, the method is not. Join me after the jump to learn more. Continue Reading →

Leading a Visual Life: The Sartorialist

By on January 10, 2011

I didn’t grow up dreaming to be a photographer. I didn’t assist for anybody. I just started doing it… The way I do it is just the way I do it.

Beautiful piece here about Scott Schumann, aka The Sartorialist. In the unlikely event you’re not familiar with his work, he’s an ex-fashion guy turned street photographer. Plenty to be learned here for any creative discipline.

Brilliant, simple style.
Confident in his vision.
Living a creative life.
There are a million paths to get where you’re going.

The Joy of Discovering Un-deveolped Film [a video]

By on January 5, 2011

From my early childhood I have a memory of my parents shooting a couple photos during the holiday season, a couple more during my birthday party, maybe ten or twenty on the family vacation and then–when the roll of 24 exposures was used up–they’d pop the film outta the back of the camera and throw it in the drawer. Usually after about another month or two they’d re-discover the roll. And they’d run it down to the local drugstore, retrieve it a week or two later and voila! We’d be looking at pictures that were already a year old or more. We of course, didn’t care. This is the way photography just ‘was’. And i suspect that if you’re in your late 20′s or 30′s or older that you may have had similar memories.

While I’m talking of these things like they’re a hundred years ago, funny thing that a similar thing happened to me just recently. It’s a little different in that we’re talking moving pictures. I’ve got this waaay cool, old Bolex 8mm movie camera that I bought at a used camera about 15 years ago. Sometime last year I was plowing through old gear and I stumbled on that great old camera and….lo and behold…there were a handful of undeveloped film cartridges. I zipped them across country to one of the only places left that was developing this old Kodak stock and what I got back brought a huge smile to my face. Me and a couple of buddies–Scott who you know well and another buddy Glen–from more than a DECADE AGO with long skateboards, baggy shorts and pants, cruising down long, rolling hills Continue Reading →

Communicating Emotion: Review of A vs B Photo Discussion

By on January 3, 2011

I love how opinionated this community is. There is no right, no wrong – just a good bit of discussion…

In case you’re lost, I promised to follow up this earlier popular Which Photo is Better A or B? post. The discussion on these is always spirited–in this case the post received more than 1000 comments in 24 hours–of which I read them all. A breakdown by numbers, my particular take (it was different than most of your votes), and a fascinating old JWT video that features Stephen King and a box of hammers, which subtly reveals a good bit about products and our emotions around them, all after the jump… Continue Reading →

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