Archive for November, 2009

Dirty 305

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

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As most of you know — because who doesn’t read Pop Photo & PDN cover-to-cover every month, right? – - John Loomis Photography was featured in both industry mags’ December issues.  First up, Popular Photography asks me “How to” (click on the image above to see it larger/clearer) in a re-cap of a Men’s Health assignment that I shot in Quantico, VA on evolving real-world training methods for the Marines.  The original concept of the how-to was to show my select and then a bunch of crappy frames (I make a lot of those) which missed the mark, illustrating how-not-to, but they instead wisely chose a direct approach.  Important tip included in the story: I get dirty.  Thanks to Pop Photo’s Debbie Grossman for reaching out to me, and to Men’s Health Michelle Stark, for giving me the job (and excuse to get dirty) in the first place.  For those interested, the rest of short piece is below:

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Next up is Photo District News, who delivers an updated City Guide on Miami in their new issue, in which I’m quoted a few times – the most honest of which are not attributed, thanks Conor!  I haven’t seen the print edition yet, but if its fun and/or has a sweet pic by yours truly in there, I’ll update to let you have a nice chuckle.

Working in Miami continues to be love/hate for me, but I do appreciate it a bit more now that I spend most of my time in NYC.  The people, attitude, traffic, pretentiousness, and $$ are hard to deal with… but the weather is insane and local color & backgrounds can be fantastic if you know where to look, plus I like pork sandwiches a lot.  Purely photographically-speaking it’s not an easy place to be for any thing other than catalog or fashion shoots.  The local clients mostly pay terrible and demand the world, the pool of assistants is thin, and the photo gallery scene is non-existent most of the year (at least I’ve rarely seen signs of life outside of Basel).  But as I’ve said many times before, standing on the beach in mid-January, when the weather is a chilly 74, you feel like a genius.

Posted in Freelancing, Media, Promotion | No Comments »

New Work: Second Skin

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

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Fresh out on the newsstands in ESPN the Magazine’s Nov. 30th issue is a really fun feature that I shot on the Penn State University mascot, the Nittany Lion.  Though the shoot (which took place over Homecoming weekend and during that unseasonal Nor’easter last month) was not without its challenges, writer Larry Smith, assistant Brian Harkin, and I had a fantastic time stalking the Lion both in and out of costume. A special thanks to the Lion himself, Clint Gyory, who in addition to being a great athlete was also super patient with our crew.  And of course big ups to ESPN picture editors Catriona Ni Aolain and Joe Rodriguez.

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The main pleasure for me with this type of story was the freedom to go a hundred different directions with it, and my huge edit of final selects proved that we packed in a ton of ideas and set-ups into our snowy 2 days.  Lion found himself in the shower, outside shoveling snow, playing Rock Band, reading the paper (we really freaked out the dog with Clint’s costumed self), and doing other mundane household duties in addition to the (all lit!) reportage follow-along shooting we did of him at pep rallies, ice cream socials, parades, arenas, changing rooms, and of course the football stadium.  The college mascots life and energy don’t ever stop, especially during homecoming, and so we didn’t either.

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College athletics (and football especially) are my favorite as a fan and a member of the media because of the energy, passion, and unpredictability.  The Penn State fans were chosen for this article because they live and breathe it in this really compelling way… case in point the homecoming parade was several hours long in the freezing rain and snow and the entire route was packed with people screaming their heads off.  Sure State College is a tiny town in rural PA, but the atmosphere was infectious and it certainly helped give us a boost far after we’d have liked to head back to the hotel (which actually lost power and had to shut down).

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Here are a few more favorites that didn’t make the cut:

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Posted in Action, New Work, Portraits | 2 Comments »

Push

Friday, November 6th, 2009

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Depending on who you talk to, what day you catch them on, and maybe how the wind is blowing at that exact second… the economy and magazine industry is either waking up a little, or getting ever worse. With the summer slog behind us I’ve spent the last couple of months hustling my new portfolio and NYC address in an attempt to make my (just-past) 30th birthday a happy affair… and thankfully it’s been a busy few weeks at JLP HQs with new work for ESPN the Magazine, Business Week, O, and Men’s Health among others, most of which was shot out of the NYC office (Yes!).

In this sort of climate any victory is worth celebrating but I’m still way too superstitious to claim any sort of turning point or master scheme.  Truly I’m just out there pushing myself and making the most of each tiny opportunity, meeting, and shoot, no matter the circumstances.  Sounds simple, but I recognize that in times past when it’s rolling I’m not thinking that hard about every shoot… some of them have juice, others you just limp through, and you move on.  Right now I’m in do or die mode every time I’m shooting, whether its for one of my personal projects (the image of construction on 1 World Trade Center, a la the Freedom Tower, seen above was found while I was out scouting for a new project early this chilly morning) or on assignment for a new or repeat client.

Inspired by the total pain in the ass of shooting in NYC with a huge kit, I’ve also been pushing myself over the last few shoots to strip down and stay mobile with my lighting, cramming in more set-ups, ideas, and options into each shoot.  I’ve always been a 3-4 set-up (for a regular portrait job) sort of guy, but on a recent and super fun ESPN shoot (details coming soon) we did something like 20+ setups (fighting the cold, snow, and rain the whole time).  And of course when there are more ideas and options, editors and ADs get psyched, especially when it comes from an unexpected assignment.

JLPNY is closing shop over the next few days as my parents are headed into town for some very good eating, and then the party continues upstate for a few days of R&R with the Dr. in Lake Placid.  Have a great Veteran’s Day everyone and please keep the military families of Fort Hood in your thoughts following yesterday’s horrible and disturbing shootings.

Posted in Freelancing, New Work, New York | 1 Comment »