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Pioneers II

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

A dispatch from the road… I’m somewhere in the middle of Nebraska working on my “Pioneers” project; loosely following the immigrant trails and therefore the Platte River as it ribbons it’s shallow way ever up through increasingly rougher western terrain. It’s not yet lunch time but because I’ve been waking up long before the sun (we are all slaves to the light) I’m leaning heavily on my fist, one eye shut, sucking down diner coffee and gathering my thoughts before continuing on.

Mostly I’m acting on instinct because it’s the only thing I’m prepared to do since my project is still in rough outline. Occasionally I see something interesting and after passing it in my rental car I U-turn back and decide if it is the right kind of interesting. I chose to follow a section of the Oregon Trail to sort of focus my path and give the trip some structure but the once well trod (estimates of up to 500,000 immigrants before the railroad was connected in 1862) trail is now nearly empty. At the Chimney Rock visitors center this morning I was out numbered by employees 2:1. Chimney Rock is interesting but the light was crap and you can’t get close enough and even if you trespassed the field is filled with rattlesnakes and really pissed off grasshoppers.

The weather is beautiful, actually perfect road trip skies and crispness. The A/C hasn’t been on once since leaving Denver airport. I’m most likely going to burn the crap out of my skull yet again (my recent Texas trip has only recently stopped peeling away).

Thankfully the RZ is beginning to feel less awkward in my hands and loading film into backs again is sort of great. I’m only using 2 films and have been shooting at a respectable clip thus far. Working alongside one of the largest train yards in the country before sunrise this morning I reveled in the slow exposures and minute adjustments to the tripod head. Simple, unrestrained photography.

Aesthetically the project is still wide open – insert either fishing or hunting metaphor. I want to feel the vastness of the west in the pictures, the bleached details and 40-mile visibility. I don’t want the images to be snarky in their promised un-sentimentality, but I have also been sort of cropping out signs of modernity when possible (there will still be plenty hundreds of power lines stretching into infinity) which might be a mistake. This is supposed to be a modern document but the pull to see the west through antique eyes is very strong.

I’m hoping to wake up again far before the sun at higher elevation tomorrow morning and then tack back southwest into Salt Lake City. The only rule is to shoot most of my film and find a way back to board my flight home to NYC on Saturday.

Posted in Creativity, Freelancing, Projects, Travel | 1 Comment »

Pioneers

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The personal photography project is one of the most fragile pieces of the new freelance landscape. A project must be allowed to breathe and evolve, but many photographers allow only a select few into the developing stages. We are not only protecting our egos (and reputations if the work isn’t any good) but also potentially the project itself as today, just like back in college, there is a small risk that a good idea might be poached by another photographer long on motivation but short on imagination.

I’ve spent most of the last 2 weeks drawing up plans and seeking divine inspiration for a new project that I’m working on. During that time and for the last few months I’ve written this blog post at least a dozen times but I’ve deleted each because it didn’t feel right. But now that a trip is eminent and supplies have been shipped maybe it’s time to talk about the idea (which is at best a rough sketch) and the process itself. Also the fear of purloined genius doesn’t really factor in when the subject of my project is no less than the American west, one of the most well trod themes of 20th century photography.

These pictures here are not the project… they are basically the seeds of the genesis of the project. I really don’t know exactly if the project will look like these or even feel like these, but possible and probably neither.

Pioneers, as I’ve taken to calling my new project, began on JLP’s last trip out west camping our way around the Grand Circle when I got an itch in the back of my brain about the modern west and it’s strange, untamed, emptyness. As an east coast kid we learn in school that the west was won, developed, and parceled out during the gold rushes and manifest destiny of the early to mid-19th century, in the hey day of the migrant trails, most famously the Oregon Trail, known to my generation vividly because of the video game of the same name that made computer lab in kindergarten pretty awesome (maybe my next project will be on Carmen Sandiego?!) But the experience of traveling through the west today is exhiliratingly different than that simplified textbook chapter heading.

The west is essentially a well-fenced desert playground inhabited by the same personalities as those who struck out on a 6 month wagon trip from Independence, Missouri to the green valleys of the Pacific ocean. The landscapes is so vast that giant cities like L.A. and Vegas and Salt Lake feel like tiny dots… and if you drive even a half hour outside of the suburban limits of some of these cities, especially Vegas or Phoenix, you find yourself in another century with little to bring you back except long distance power and phone lines and the promise of a McDonald’s 68 miles down the road.

Essentially my project plan is to travel around the west and trace the historic sites and emigration routes of my American ancestors (metaphorically since my true relatives have staid put on the east coast since 1638, thank you very much) to discover, without sentimentalism, what the modern west looks like and maybe answer the question of whether the west was or ever could be won. Additionally I want to explore visually the way in which the west is sold back to itself to tourists every summer from the comfort of their RVs, reinventing the “pioneer” life along the way.

These images were obviously (to me) shot digitally and that is one of the reasons why they won’t be a part of the project if it’s ever finished. They are pictures of a dozen miles or more and through the digital sensor they feel compressed somehow. Film just has a scope and contrast in the subtle gradients that my digital camera (or personal skills?) just can’t touch. So I recently bought myself a used Mamiya, the 4th of my career, to try to capture that richness and also to change my shooting habits since this project is obviously a little different than what I typically shoot on assignment and I could use the slowing down.

Thus far the RZ feels completely awkward in my hands as I lug it around my new neighborhood working on a different project that will probably not be blog fodder anytime soon. As example yesterday I was shooting near Columbus Circle when Letterman regular and Hello Deli owner Rupert Jee walked into my frame. Not that he would have made it a good picture, he definitely would not have, but I struggled to quickly make a frame but forgot to pull my dark slide. When changing lenses I also dropped a lens cap on the street and it rolled under a large truck so that wasn’t graceful either.

I’m leaving for Colorado next week, first to visit with my awesome friends Jen & Eric, and then to hit the road through Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah and discover what the new project is all about.

Posted in Creativity, Freelancing, New Work, Projects, Travel | 1 Comment »

Boxes, redux

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Rafting down the Delaware River, July 2010

It’s been a little more than a year since JLP opened the NYC branch (took the plunge?) and my wife and I began our married lives together in the city surrounded by boxes. Now once again breaking down boxes (we only moved 3.5 miles this time to Columbus Circle) I thought it would be helpful to take stock on the grand experiment.

Personally the first year has been fantastic even if I haven’t seen all that much of my beautiful wife as she fought the good fight (and won/survived!) in her intern year in medicine. We both love living in the city and seeing friends (images above from my camping/rafting trip last weekend) and being in the thick of pretty much everything you could ever want to experience. Manhattan is all of the things that you have heard it is (expensive, loud, insane, smelly, etc.) but it’s been beautiful walking these streets, our streets, watching the seasons change and lights flicker.

Professionally it’s nearly impossible to separate and discern what might be you vs. outside factors… did I listen to pop music because I was depressed, or did listening to pop music make me depressed? Same goes with photography and moving and the fucked publishing economies. Things haven’t been crazy busy but I’ve kept working; often back in Miami, often shooting portraits, and occasionally for slightly less than I believed a job was worth. But it’s our Grand Depression, folks, and that just goes with the reality for most of us. I know that relatively I’ve been doing just fine but of course we all want more and better.

During the last year I’ve parted with a rep (no biggie, I’m back on my own), got to do some traveling (Iceland, Haiti, and the American West), have shot more corporate and advertising work, and started/restarted some personal projects. In the categories that matter I’m really happy and am having fun. That’s a pretty simple metric but I’m trying to avoid spending too much time in my head these days. And working hard and seeing results over the last year has been rewarding.

A year later the most obvious spot to improve in is that I haven’t been as smart or aggressive with my promotion as I expected to be mostly because the economy was so ill. I haven’t set up as many meetings or sent out as many cards to really drive home my NYC/MIA twin cities operation as I could have, and hopefully I can change that in the next few of months. But I have been out meeting people, making introductions, and generally hoping to raise my profile a bit in a slow “I’m going to be around for a long, long time” sort of way. And I’ve also been listening to the market and my own creative drive to figure out what sort of career is actually going to continue to make me feel fulfilled.

After a year of working based in NYC – which has been busier of late I think many of us feel – I’ve started to unravel some of the mysteries. And as I mentioned before there really aren’t that many tricks, just a lot of sweat. You start by preparing yourself, then you strip things down both mentally and gear-wise as far as you can, hire more help and also a car, and then get to work. And my clients haven’t said peep about paying more for it. Basically working in NYC is just more legwork; an extra connection when you were used to direct flights.

I’m certainly missing a whole host of things so I’ll open up the comments to any questions that any of you might have.

Posted in Creativity, Freelancing, New York, Promotion, Travel | 1 Comment »

Motion-ing

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Things have been quiet on the blog but not so much in the JLP offices as I’ve been bouncing back and forth between FL and NYC, trying to stay sane between the +/- 50 degree temperature changes between the two HQs. The new year has already brought some fun (and very challenging) commercial and editorial shoots. Right now I’m getting things planned for an upcoming shooting trip that I’m excited about mostly because I’m going to be attempting some motion work which like everyone else I’ve been thinking a whole lot about over the past several months.

Dipping your toes into video isn’t that expensive these days for most of us (because of course the Nikon and Canon DLSRs utilize the same lenses) but operating on any sort of legit production value level can certainly get out of control and up to your neck in pricey accessories in an instant. I’ve decided to start small and try to build from there depending on specific projects and what I want to say with motion. And that last bit there has been why it’s taken me so long to engage in video… I don’t really want to be involved unless I have something to say with it. Seems silly to mention, but I wonder how much of the 2nd generation (I remember the initial newspaper platypus/multimedia “revolution talk” 10 years ago) video buzz is actually connecting on that line.

The only thing I’m sure about regarding video is that I’m definitely going to make a lot of mistakes before I learn my unique way, so I’m going to over share on the blog in an effort to perhaps help others climbing the same hill. I welcome any ideas and feedback into my initial video gear in the comments below.

So to begin (on what is the really boring shit) here is my recent Amazon/B&H shopping cart carnage: Canon 7D body, extra batteries, a couple more of the badass SanDisk Extreme 32GB CF UDMA cards, Hoodman 3.0 loupe w/ strap thing, Manfrotto 701HDV fluid head, Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 CF trip legs, and finally a Tamron 17-50/2.8 APS-C lens.

Some notes about above: obviously the kit is missing audio and post production… I already own an Edirol R-09 recorder and Sennheiser ME66/K6 shotgun mic set-up and don’t plan on doing any interview type stuff at all right now or I would probably invest in a wireless lav system; and I already own most of the video editing software I plan on using. Also I don’t plan initially on doing handheld/follow video type stuff or I would (gulp) consider something like the Merlin or Redrock Micro… enter thoughts of the coyote stepping off the cliff just before he notices there is nothing but air underneath.

Now, the 7D… honestly I don’t like any of the current DSLR choices for my work but the 7D won my purchase because of potential resale (at least in 2010) and because of timing (my upcoming trip will begin before the XTi is released). I read a lot of reviews (the blog ProLost is a fantastic resource that I used at length though I still don’t understand more than about 30%) and because the 5DM2 still doesn’t have 50/60 fps shooting option (which plays heavy into my ideas about what I want to do with motion) I think the 7D is the right choice for me, even though I’m definitely not psyched about using a non-full frame sensor (for the first time in 4+ years).

I bought the Tamron lens because I was going to need something super wide due to the 1.6x conversion (I went 3rd party because the Canon 17-55/2.8 is not well reviewed, very similar, and more than x2 as expensive – plus the slow focus of the Tamron means nothing if I’m shooting video because its all manual). For me, and probably everyone else, the best DSLR is the one that Canon hasn’t announced yet… one that will both be a back-up or replacement to my 1DsM3, eg. full-frame, and with more robust and distinct video features (the 7D has a full-time record button, which is a start).

The DLSR video accessory marketplace is obviously evolving so fast that buying anything is sort of tough because its going to be replaced with something likely to be a whole lot better/cheaper in a matter of months. I found 3 price points in a variety of accessories: $40-$80 for something that simply won’t work or is insanely fragile, $100-$150 for something that will do the job 60-80%, and then $750-$1200 for the real pro solution which immediately makes you think about rental until someone else is paying the bills.

So I hope some of my thinking about my initial video kit helps. I’ll definitely share what else I pick up and how all of it works for my initial projects. Next time I’m going to talk about some of my early inspiration in motion that has me excited about trying to figure out my own style in video. Lastly I want to say hi to some new visitors who might be checking out the blog after a little write up in AdBase today.

Posted in Creativity, Freelancing, Motion | 3 Comments »

Conan

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I too tuned into Conan’s last Tonight Show and have also marveled at the class he’s displayed during this media storm/NBC meltdown over the last two weeks. On Friday’s show he took a moment to step it up another level by not only being kind to his employer of so many years, but to also forcibly and emotionally beg any young people watching that cynicism and selfishness are not on the path leading to anywhere important. In this media & celebrity atmosphere we live in/under I thought it was pretty much a revolutionary statement, and certainly worth sharing here. I for one am taking it to heart.

Posted in Creativity, Media | 1 Comment »

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