The first cover

The other day I went looking for, and found, the original slide from my first North American cover. It was a portrait of Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull for The Sporting News from March 13th, 1996. Almost 20 years ago! I can hardly believe it!

The original is on slide film so saying I went looking for it was no easy task. I have thousands of slides and lets just say it took me a while. 

My how things have changed in those twenty years and I'm not just talking about the digital work flow. 

The whole business of photography has changed. Back in 1996 there were only a handful of photographers in the Vancouver market. Now there are hundreds I'm sure. All competing for those coveted cover shoots. 

Companies aren't hiring photographers, they are shooting "in house" and putting the images onto their websites and around the world in minutes.

Other things have changed as well. The people in the photographs now have more control over the final image. In this shot I chose the above angle and pose but today on a lot of my shoots I have clients let me know what the final image should look like. Not saying that's all bad, just saying it's a different photo world.

So it's coming up to twenty years since I shot this cover.  

Oh and did I tell you I was really, really young when I shot it. 

Portraits, portraits and more portraits!

As a photographer who shoots events, announcements and corporate awards I also do my fair share of Corporate portraits.  A large company like The Bank of Montreal wants to make it as easy as possible for its employees to have their portraits done. So as a result I come to them with a full studio. Backdrop, lights, reflectors and laptop to view my images in real time.
The only thing I need at a location is about 10-15 feet shooting area and a plugin for my lights. Simple and easy for the client. My set up takes about half an hour and I'm ready to go!

2014 C.F.L. Grey Cup Championship

It's hard to believe this was my 5th Grey Cup and my 3rd Cup shooting images. For the 2014 cup ( as well as the 2011 Cup )  I was hired by The Canadian Press and CFL promotions to shoot the on field promotions. This is different from the action shots that you see in the newspapers the following day. These are images for the CFL to show their advertisers how the adds were used and how much exposure they get during the big game.
Sounds easy, right? Not!
BC Place in Vancouver holds 55.000 fans and is a huge stadium! Walking around, up and down flights of stairs, back and forth on the field numerous times, all while holding three cameras and lenses and a belt full of other camera gear takes its toll on the body.
Talking to other photographers after the game I was not alone in my pain. Sore backs, legs and shoulders are the norm after a big game.
Having said this, there is an excitement to being on the field, the best seat in the house but you are so busy shooting images that there really is no time to watch the action.

This image was taken after the game and even though I was pretty tired I still could muster a smile.

This image was taken before the game in warm-up. Same smile, pre-tired body.

I did have time before the game to have a great chat with Anthony Calvillo. A CFL hall of fame quarterback and Pro football all time leader for passing yards. Not just CFL leader but NFL as well!

And just for the record the Calgary Stampeders won the cup. Here they are holding up the Grey cup after the game. Even though my day was over by then, I could not leave without getting a shot of the celebrations. 

The world in HDR

HDR ( high dynamic range ) is nothing new to photography, it's been around for many years now.
But the problem I'm having with it is some photographers can't do without it. Landscape, portrait, street photography, you name it, and HDR is all the rage.
I bring this up for two reasons. The first is that I recently was on a sports photographers website that had almost all of his images in HDR. Second, I teach photography on the weekends and quite a few of my students like to add HDR to an image and then tell people that's what the scene looked like in real life.
Hold on, HDR is a filter of sorts and can be added to an image for effect. Like below.

                

I have nothing against HDR. I use it as well. But I do try to tell people that I added it to the image.

How about another example. This image has less of the filter strength of the first image and I think works better but I'm still going to tell the viewer that it was used.

Like I said I like the HDR look, it's fun. But lets not pretend it's real life and fill our portfolios with ninety-five percent HDR. 

Years from now I don't want people saying "why did the world look so weird back then". A simple "processed with HDR" should bring us back to reality. 

My two cents.  

Blast from the past

Here is a blast from the past!
A promotional photo I did in the 1980's for CKVU TV in Vancouver.
The show was called "Acting Crazy" with host Wayne Cox.
As I was scanning it for the post I was thinking how long it actually took me to get the image originally. It's shot on film so I had to get the B&W film processed ( one day ) and then get it back to the TV station so that the promo people could look at it,( another day ). They look at the contact sheets and pick the shot they wanted then I took it back to my darkroom and printed up ten 5X7's to send out to the media. At least another day gone.
With today's cameras and Wi-Fi you can shoot the image and have the image out to the media in about five minutes!
I love looking at my old images but I don't miss the time and trouble involved in getting the images.

Toronto Star Masterclass

I thought I would pass along a link from the Toronto Star and their Masterclass series. If you want to know how we  ( I say we as photographers and as I've had images over the years in this newspaper, although I do not work for the paper ) make some of the images that the Toronto Star runs.
You're never too old to learn a thing or two.

http://www.thestar.com/photos/masterglass.html

Work station blues

Last week I was working for The Canadian Press and Environment Canada at the Globe Conference in Vancouver.

But that is not what I would like to talk about today.

I would like to touch on a little known issue to most people who do not work in the photography business.

It's called "Photo gear envy"!

I like most of my counterparts in the business try to keep up with the newest trends and photo equipment that is required in our line of work. And that's not an easy thing today with the blistering pace of the constantly changing photo equipment market. 

Case in point, my work station. As I waited for my images to be sent to Toronto I started to look around at other photographers equipment and realized that even though my cameras, lenses and laptop are perfectly fine and do the job they are intended to do, I was starting to think about upgrading. 

What is he or she using?

How much do I spend?

Do I change camera makers?

Is their's better than mine?

Where can I get lunch in this building? Oops, not part of my rant. 

I shoot Canon and to change my equipment over completely to another camera maker would just cost too much. 

Constantly upgrading in small increments in my opinion is the answer.  

The days of when a film camera would last you 10 years have long since passed into the digital age. Buying new equipment on a one or two year cycle and constantly upgrading is now a fact of life.

Even though I'm a Canon shooter this new Panasonic looks pretty enticing. 

Twelve frames a second, 4K video, fastest auto-focus,

 Wi-fi transfer and control, half the weight of my equipment. Hmmm!

Keep your head down in your computer Michael and stop thinking about "Gear Envy".

A new twist on ownership

Visit the link for the video.

http://petapixel.com/2014/01/29/funny-video-puts-slightly-creepy-spin-asking-someone-take-picture/

A word to the wise moving forward

With the loss of jobs in the photography business I'm seeing more and more stories like this turning up. It only stands to reason that there would be a push back.

 http://photothisandthat.co.uk/2014/02/02/a-note-to-editors-publishers-and-newspaper-owners/

Dinosaurs among us?

Here is a great article on the state of photography and those of us over the age of 50. New photographers coming into the press world are more concerned with the final image and what it has to say, and could care less about the camera equipment it took to get it.

And that's the way it should be!

Case in point. I teach photography for a company out of Calgary, www.learnphotographycanada.ca/. Mostly I teach a Digital 1 course in Vancouver to students just starting out and who want a better understanding of their cameras and the basics of photography itself. What I'm finding is students are thinking about photography in terms of their iphone, Samsung or mirror-less camera. As a teacher I have to find new ways of teaching photography and not be stuck in the old tried and true (or not) ways!

Past articles on my blog have touched on this before. The press world is changing.  I don't want the image in my mirror looking back at me to resemble the proverbial dinosaur.


 http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.ca/2013/10/the-graying-of-traditional-photography.html

Instagram and just good photography

Over the past year Instagram has become one of the most powerful players in the way for a company or just your average person to get their life on the web.
Along with Flickr, Instagram brings the viewer an insight into the daily interests and goings on. If your interest is photography ( like me ) it's an enjoyable process, it's fun. Here is one of my Intagram sites started last month. My company Instagram site is coming soon.

                                http://instagram.com/gripandgrin2013

But this is not just reserved for your average person to enjoy, it's also now a very important way for leaders of countries to give an insight into the political process.
Pete Souza, one of the best political photographers in the world is the photographer for the President of the United States. His Instagram site is fun as well as very revealing. His photography is top notch.

                                http://instagram.com/petesouza

On the other hand the photography ( in my opinion ) for Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada is ordinary and lacking in creativity. It's just plain boring. Some Media types might say, tongue in cheek, that the images match the Prime Ministers personality but that is very subjective. I'm not sure if it's the official PM's photographer shooting the images or just a handler for the PM with a their camera-phone but in my opinion Mr. Harper's office should have a look at Pete Souza. The PM's Instagram site has just over 500 followers as apposed to over 77000 followers for Pete Souza. Numbers aren't everything but when your site is lacking, it's usually the quality of the images. The PM's site will never have Justin Bieber numbers but I think they can do better than 500 followers in a country of thirty-five Million people.

                              http://instagram.com/pmstephenharper


Also on a related topic see the story below:

http://petapixel.com/2012/10/11/ncaa-bans-college-coaches-from-using-instagram-to-recruit-athletes/

National Geographic and the art of photograhy

Great words and images from some of the best 
photographers today.

https://plus.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.theplatform.com%2Fp%2Fngs%2FAGI4dyViyrmO%2Fselect%2FIY1wheEWPW_z


"If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front 
 of better stuff." Brilliant!

41 Mega Pixels and press photography

All photographers carry phones along with all their camera equipment but how long before the phone is the only thing we will carry?

As well as Nokia, companies like Samsung are embracing the convergence of cameras and phones.

With Nokia's new 41 Mega Pixel camera / phone it's only a matter of time before a phone is the only thing we will use to shoot, sort, caption and upload our images to the web or agency.
The quality of the images coming from a phone like the Nokia is of course the determining factor.

Here is a link to the Nokia website and the possible future of 
media / press photography.

 http://www.nokia.com/global/experience/photography/

Shooting at the TIFF

                   Short story about the Toronto Film Festival photographer
                   Jeff Vespa.  

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2013/09/09/official_photographer_jeff_vespa_shoots_scores_at_tiff.html

The Imaging World is Changing

When Reuters, one of North America's largest picture agency, starts to let photographers go, you know the world of professional photography is changing.

Is it a creative change? Not quite, according to Toronto-based freelancer and Reuters photographer, Jon Blacker. It's a business decision made by Reuters. Strictly business.

While I can't argue with a business decision made by, and for Reuters, I can't help but feel for the photographers who have contributed their best work to Reuters, and who are now affected by this wonderful "business decision".

Even though professional photographers are resourceful, I can't see all of these sports-only photographers moving to strictly news. And that means Canadian jobs are lost.

http://petapixel.com/2013/08/24/reuters-ditches-north-american-sports-photogs-strikes-deal-with-usa-today/#more-121414

The price of Twitter.

When a tornado drops down in Ontario, that's a news story to be sure. But when every single image posted in a slide show of that story is from a Twitter feed, today that's not much of a story. Or does anyone really care that all of the images come from Twitter?

I can remember as a young photographer coming across a fire at an apartment building. As the fire department had just started to get the fire under control, I felt it would be okay for me to take photos of the blaze. As soon as I had images that I thought the local paper might use, I headed out. My local paper did use two of the images and I got paid for both. That's right! I got paid to take pictures of a news event!

Now my point is, how many of those images of the tornado used from Twitter were paid for by the news source? Some of them? All of them? Or is it what I think the total money spent for these news images. Zero!

As long as people are happy just to see their images on the web and not get paid for them, and editors do not have to pay for images, your local photo-journalist is out of work.

Free is the best price I have ever come across to be sure...but it won't pay the rent.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/tornadoes-spotted-in-ontario-slideshow/another-pic-of-the-arthur-tornado-onstorm-tornado-pic-twitter-com-wac5l1k8dz-photo-1375970615471.html

Freedom of the press... kind of.

Here's an interesting link about freedom of the press in Canada. Even if the story is about anyone who holds a camera and feels the need to video a local news event.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/28/freedom_to_photograph_under_threat.html

You're under arrest... for what?

Another troubling story about photographers just doing their jobs and getting arrested for doing so. Again, not a Canadian incident but this kind of thing is happening everywhere.
Click on the link and after read some of the stories at the side of the page.

http://petapixel.com/2013/07/16/detroit-newspaper-photographer-arrested-while-covering-police-action/#more-117604

KISS and Sophie team up

When the Rock Band KISS calls a press conference to promote something, you know it's going to be good. But this presser had something different. As well as promoting their upcoming concert, KISS, with Gene Simmons and his family were also there to bring attention to Sophie's Place, a child advocacy centre in Surrey, BC.

In attendance in Vancouver were all four members of KISS, as well as Shannon Tweed, Sophie Tweed-Simmons and the mayor of Surrey, Dianne Watts.

And to top all of that, Kiss was signing autographs and selling KISS ARMY clothing at Tom Lee Music!

Only Gene Simmons can pull off three promotions and pressers in one!

The Pit

Not technically Canadian but a good example of  the changing face of fashion photography.Video from The Sartorialist / Scott Schuman / youtube.