Photographer Assistant for Fun and Profit

A little over 10 years ago I sold my house in Phoenix and moved to (almost) LA to learn about the business and craft of photography and become a pro photographer. I had selected several photographers who were doing the type of photography I wanted to get into and doing it well. I met several of them but never made much headway. I assisted one photographer several times but I think I had more gear than she did and based on my lack of proximity to central LA (I lived in Riverside–don’t ask) it wasn’t very consistent. It was fun but I didn’t get the immersion into the LA photography scene I was looking for.

When I returned to LA I didn’t have any intention of looking for assisting work. I thought I might be too old and too experienced for anyone to hire me as an assistant. I have since learned that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I also felt that any additional learning would have to be on-the-job learning. I was wrong about that, too.

Getting the power hooked up at Pier 59 Studios West in Santa Monica.

Last October, out of the blue, I received an email from the studio manager of Michael Grecco asking if I was available to assist. I had met Michael my first time around and he was one of the top three photographers I wanted to work for. At first I thought they had me confused with someone else but figured I’d go with it and they booked me for the shoot.

I was a little nervous on the first shoot because I had only assisted a handful of times and that was over 10 years ago. I planned to just keep my eyes and ears open and count on my experience running my own shoots to get me through. Fortunately, I was the 2^nd assistant so I just followed the 1^st assistant’s lead. It was a cover shoot for People Magazine in Newport Coast. Michael is a patient photographer who keeps a loose and easy-going shoot atmosphere and he really knows his lighting.

After a couple of shoots I did well enough that Michael informed me that I was his go-to 1^st assistant. I have since learned that many assistants work for years to become 1^st assistants. I also learned that Michael only picks assistants who have been shooting for 10+ years.

On most shoots, Michael has two assistants so I have met many other assistants ranging from their early 20’s to their 40’s. I also found out that many of these guys are career assistants, which never occurred to me. Good ones can make a pretty good living working for several different photographers.

We rolled the NASCAR out to the front yard for this shoot for People Magazine in Virginia.

After working with Michael for the past 4 months, I have come to the conclusion that my initial preconceived notions about assisting were way off. To quote Peter Venkman, ‘mother puss-bucket’ I have a lot to learn! I can only credit serendipity and/or divine intervention with hooking me up with Michael. He is not as busy as either of us would like him to be, but he brings 30+ years of experience in shooting and lighting and has opened up new opportunities for me.

Michael is a lighting expert. He has a published a couple of lighting books including, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, along with a personal project book, Naked Ambition, and a companion documentary. He has photographed for every major magazine and most A-List celebrities you can think of. He is also the master of getting endorsements so he has enough gear to do pretty much any shoot he wants. His endorsements include Hasselblad, Dyna-Lite, Chimera, California Sunbounce, and for a while, Canon.

With all this gear, I have had an excellent opportunity to use equipment that I have not used before. This, and Michael’s knowledge, has made assisting him such a great learning experience. In the past, I have rigged ways to shape light for shoots or just given up on my initial vision and now I am finding that there are tools to do exactly what I was trying to do. I have also learned new ways of using light modifiers to get the effects I want.

Shooting in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for People Magazine.

I have traveled across the country assisting Michael and have done some pretty high-production shoots in major LA studios (Pier 59 Studios West, Smashbox) complete with set designers and builders. I have assisted Michael with a couple of celebrity shoots as well as some national ad campaigns. I have also met many people and made a few friends.

Assisting has been a great way to learn, immerse myself in photography and meet new people. It has also opened up new options for me including becoming a Digital Tech. I will post more about that later as I become more involved. But, for now, I’m headed to Las Vegas tomorrow for a shoot for Fortune Magazine. You can follow me on Instagram to see these shoots in action. My Instagram photos also feed to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

You’ll Find Me On Instagram

Instagram is my new favorite social media platform. Over the past few months, I have been getting tired of Facebook and Twitter considering swearing off of them altogether. I had been introduced to the app while I was still living in NYC when it first came out but was using Hipstamatic at the time and figured I didn’t need another social media network, I could just share my photos via TwitPic. I also was using Best Camera to share iPhone pictures and I was liking the filters on that one better.

I started playing with Instagram one day and really liked how the feed worked. As a visual person, I could scroll through pictures of the people I was following. It was enjoyable to look at the pictures but wasn’t the incredible time-suck that I find Facebook and Twitter to be. I look for people who travel and take pictures of unusual things. As I stopped using Flickr, it was easy to find a plug-in to replace my Flickr images in my sidebar with my Instagram feed.

Instagram isn’t perfect. The filters are all retro-simulations (I’m a little over that) so all the photos have a similar look. I’d like to see them include some basic filters that just add a cool border and a lens vignette. It has some limitations, the main one being everything is in app and it’s only available for iPhone. This leaves a lot of people out. Fortunately, they are working on an Android version and some other players have moved in to provide some additional Instagram related services.

On the web, instagrid.com and followgram.me are offering free accounts for Instagram users to have a web gallery of their feed. I signed up for both but decided I liked what Followgram was doing better so that is the one I link to from my site. You can view pictures from a diary view (split up by days posted), list view and grid view. It also gives information about who I am and who I follow similar to the new Twitter. For those using RSS readers, there’s a button to get Instagram updates via RSS. Since it does connect to your Instagram account via api I’m hoping they will add functionality to like, comment and follow people. But of course, there’s also and app for that.

I was browsing the Apple App store and found InstaDesk for my Mac. Now I have computer access to everything Instagram. I can browse, follow, like and comment on photos. It shows the most popular photos, you can also look up photos based on tags and download the ones you like. You cannot upload photos but that is a limitation from the Instagram side. I believe Instagram will maintain the app only upload requirement. If Instagram really wants to push out into the mainstream they should acquire this app and/or make a web version because this is the missing Instagram link.

I picture is worth a thousand words but take much less time to read. I love looking at my feed to see what my friends are up to at to see pictures of places around the world. For a person who values the visual, Instagram is the perfect social media venue for me.

Follow me on Instagram: doncrossland.

500px is Poised to Rule the World

At least the photo sharing world.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the "new" photo sharing site 500px. Not new at all, 500px has been around since 2003. So why all the attention now? I suspect it has to do with some improvements they've been making to the UX as well as the lack of the same from the leader, Flickr. Whatever the reason, photographers like Zack Arias are deleting their Flickr accounts and moving to 500px. I am about to do the same and I am also thinking about disconinuing my Project: 90 Days blog and posting them on 500px.

Why 500px?

There are several reasons to move from Flickr to 500px. The terms of service for 500px is just enough to cover them but greatly favors the photographer. It is the most favorable TOS I've seen from a social networking site. The user interface is light years beyond Flickr with a strong emphasis given to the photography. Sounds like a no-brainer but one look at both interfaces side by side makes Flickr look cluncky and out-of-date (which it is). The photos on a photographers page are displayed as a grid of fairly large thumbnails with the titles and rating clearly visible when the picture is rolled over. The single image page shows a fairly large (900px) main image with comments and a like and dislike button.

A portfolio page on 500px with larger thumbnails and photographer info down the left.

You can browse through the highest rated pictures as well as editor picks. The social aspect of it lets you follow other photographers, like their photos and add to favorites. Photographers new to 500px are excited by how much faster they receive feedback and followers than Flickr but I think that will trail off as more photographers flock to 500px. But, the service lends itself much better to the social aspect so I think it will be a stronger place for interaction.

Unlike, Flickr, I don't think 500px is a dumping ground for photos. The quality of images on 500px is very high and I think if you want to gain any traction on this site you need to put your best foot forward.

A single image view with a large main photo 900px wide (make me wonder why it's called 500px).

Like any social networking site, the more you put into it, the more you get out. Following photographers, commenting on photos and rating will lead to people checking out your work. If you put up good quality work, you'll get more comments and higher ratings and get some images featured. Then the snowball starts rolling. I've noticed many of the highest rated photos are from photographer who have multiple photos in the 'most popular' section.

I'm not sure of the value behind throwing your photography up for other photographers. Other photographers are not going to hire you for a job and you most likely will not get good critiques of you work, most will either ignore you or pat you on the back.

That being said, it looks to be a good place to get noticed. Maybe it won't be long before Art Directors and image buyers start looking through the site.

It is also a great case study for UX designers because I think the difference is all about the user experience of 500px.

As the site gains popularity, hopefully, an API will pop up for plug-ins and maybe and improved app. At this time there are no WordPress plug-ins for displaying 500px images on your blog. I'm also looking forward to a time when camera apps will add 500px to the sharing options along with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

All this makes me wonder if 500px is to Flickr as Facebook was to MySpace.

The Tao of Personal Work

Personal projects are important. I’ve heard many working photographers talk about how they landed jobs on their personal work and not on their portfolio. Don’t get me wrong, their portfolio got them in the door. But when Art Directors are looking at 5 portfolios they like, compelling personal work can tip the balance in your favor.

Personal work can also get you noticed and help you stand above the crowd. Japanese photographer Natsumi Hayashi has had a photo blog for over two years posting mostly photos of her cats, food and occasionally friends. About 9 months ago she posted a picture of someone in mid-leap. Then she posted a picture of herself seemingly ‘levitating’ and started posting more. A few moths ago, she stopped posting photos of her cat and started posting the “Levitation of the Day’ photo. They are self-portraits of her in the air. She is getting more and more inventive and many of the pictures look like impossible levitations. I specially like the ones where she is floating in a crowd of people. Now, a site that was most likely visited by friends and family has gotten international attention.  If she doesn’t get a book deal out of this, she doesn’t want one.

Natsumi Hayashi self-portrait for her Levitation of the Day photo blog.

I recently attended a talk with advertising photographer Mark Laita at the Annenberg Space for Photography. He shoots mostly products for high-profile clients including Apple, Canon, Effen Vodka, Absolut and MARS cosmetics. What you don’t see in his portfolio is people. He has a dual site with his commercial work and personal work. He has a series of dead birds, colorful snakes, another series that he put drops of dye in clear water and photographed the shapes as the colors swirled and, his latest coming this fall, fish swimming near the surface. But the personal project that put him all over Google and landed him a book deal is Created Equal.

The web page for Mark Laita's Created Equal book.

He traveled all around the country photographing regular people being themselves. He stripped down everything that would draw attention away from the subject. Everyone was shot with the exact same set-up: one light (I think), the same background and all in black and white. The choice of black and white interested me because I think many people use it to give the photos a more artistic look. He wanted to strip everything down, including color. He illustrated this point by showing a big guy and said the jacket he was wearing was bright blue and would have dominated the picture. I could see how color could be distracting.

When I talk about personal work, I'm talking about a well-planned, well-thought out project that tells a story or expresses a vision. It's about giving yourself an assignment and sticking to it like it was a paid gig. It took Mark Laita over 6 years and almost half a million dollars in travel and production expenses to complete his project. This is an extreme case but it illustrates the point.

Personal work allows a photographer to branch out and push the envelope beyond what they would do while on assignment. I will also keep you shooting between assignments which, for me at least, leaves me enough time for some significant personal work.

Cultural Destination for Photography

I have found my new favorite place to hang: the Annenberg Space for Photography.  It’s located in Century Park, which is basically the downtown of Century City. There are plenty of tall office buildings with coffee shops and bistros in the area and even Westfield Mall nearby. The building you see on TV shows and movies with the big square hole in the middle is in Century Park.

Climbing up some stairs, away from the grassy knolls will take you to the space. The architecture of the building is appropriately modern; minimalist with and emphasis on function. Proportionately, it is low and square looking a little squat surrounded by the office buildings. It’s a good-looking building, though, with stairs leading up to a deck with some modern outdoor furniture and the main entrance. The façade is polished steel (or zinc) plate with glass, just the way I like it.

I love the modern architecture of this building. It makes me want to go right in.

The interior of the square building was designed with photography in mind with the main part of the exhibit around the edges and a circular center room reminiscent of a lens. The room even has a ceiling textured like an aperture. There are two 7x14 foot hi-definition screens for projecting short films an digital photography as well as smaller screens around the room.

In the center digital media area people are watching a short documentary on 14 foot ultra hi-def screens.

They have two Microsoft Surface tables (which work like giant iPads) for further exploring photos and a reading room in the back full of photography books. Since entrance is free, I could see myself killing a lot of time in the reading room.

Even more cutting edge, along the exhibit, there are QR codes which link to audio programming from any smartphone with a QR reader app. If you don’t have one they will loan you an iPod Touch for free.

The exhibit area around the edges of the interior packed with pictures. Great eye candy.

The current exhibit is BEAUTY CULTURE with hundreds of photos of iconic models from almost equally iconic photographers. They say this about the exhibit:

BEAUTY CULTURE provides a seminal examination of photography’s role in capturing and defining notions of modern female beauty and how these images profoundly influence our lives in both celebratory and disturbing ways.

It deals with how the industry has defined beauty and also how some have challenged the popular notion of what beauty is. There is a documentary film about the industry and it puts a lot of blame on the industry for making these defined characteristics of beauty more or less unattainable for the average person.

While I agree with that part, I don’t think it’s fair to put all the blame on the industry. They do what sells. If people didn’t respond to the looks and definitions of beauty, the industry would try something else. I think the industry is at least as much of a reflection of the tastes of society as it is a trend-setter. I think the industry would disagree. They like being this particular demon that people love to hate but can’t break free from.

Showing how ideas of beauty have changed in the past 60 years. Makes a point that fashion looks forward while Hollywood looks back.

Ok, stepping down from my soapbox, I loved the exhibit. There were tons of photos that I recognized instantly and many that I had never seen. It did drive something home, though. As much as I enjoyed doing fashion photography and appreciate the creativity behind these images, I have no wish to try to make a living as a fashion photographer.

I plan on returning to the space often to look more into the exhibit and attend talks on Thursday nights. If you’re in LA, chances are I will be there every Thursday. Having only seen one exhibit there, I am excited to see the different kinds of photography they will bring to the space. I'll have to wait a little while, the BEAUTY CULTURE exhibit lasts until November.

That's OK, I'll just hang.

Learning Post With A Purpose

It is said that one of the great things about photography is you never stop learning. How could you? There's so much to learn. From lighting and exposure to posing and post-production.

I have been refining my craft. Lately, I've been focusing on post-production because I haven't been shooting much lately. A consequence of being in a new city and not focusing on finding new subjects. I started using Lightroom 3 to catalog my images and decided to get a couple books to learn more about what the program can do than I could do on my own in a short time.

I think learning post production goes in stages. With all the filters and photo enhancement programs, newer photographers spend lots of time polishing turds. It takes a little while to realize fancy filters usually don't make a crappy photograph awesome, even if you convert it to black and white. This is especially true with photos of people. Then people tend to go the other way and do a minimal amount of processing to make the image 'true'. After the truth phase photographer learn that post-processing and filters are tools just like any others and should be used as a way to bring their vision to the image. I call it post with a purpose.

So I've gone back into my archives to a portrait I shot of metal sculptor Pete Deise for kontakt magazine in 2006. I went to his sculpture yard because I wanted to capture the grit of his work. If I had to do it over again, I would shoot it differently. But, I felt I captured something with the photo I did shoot of him. I just never felt like I had conveyed the true grit.

Below are two images from the exact same file shot five years ago. The one on the left is the way it was published in the magazine (I was in my 'no processing' phase [shudder]). It looks flat, fuzzy, no detail in the highlights and way too clean. The one on the right was just done and, I think, a vast improvement. It feels like what I wanted to convey. I used some dodging techniques to bring the detail back in the hightlights (look at the difference in the hands). There was some sharpening but the big difference is an improvement in the contrast in the midtones. The midtones were also punched up and the overall image was cooled and desaturated. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Before and after picture showing the difference in using post-processing to convey the feel.

The next image was shot in 2004 for Sonik magazine. This might have been the first assignment that I shot digital. The first thing I noticed about the image on the left as it appeared on the cover of the magazine is the yellow cast. I had been shooting with Kodak SW film (SW stood for saturated-warm) so when I first started shooting digital I would warm everything up slightly and boost the saturation. The next thing I noticed was the goofy half-grin and then the distracting wine racks in the background (I'm still not sure how I feel about the tilted image). So I chose the photo I shot in the next frame. The dish is dipped a little lower to better show the food and the lopsided grin is gone.

After the color correction, the main thing I wanted to work on was putting the background in the background. I used some lens vignetting to darken the background and also worked a little on the darker midtones. Back then I didn't think too much about depth-of-field. I just lit the scene and set the aperture at what ever the meter read; usually about f16. So I applied a lens blur and painted it in the background with the history brush in Photoshop to create a bokeh effect. If I had to do it over, I would have scrimmed the lights and shot it at f2.8 or f4. If you click you can see a larger version.

Left image the way it appeared on the cover of Sonik magazine and the on the right, a newly refined version.

The last example was shot for Pocketmag in 2004. We were doing a story on my Tai Chi instructor and he told me about lighting his sword on fire so I had to shoot that. Much like the photo of Pete, the original lacked detail in the highlights and overall clarity. And like the chef photo, I wanted less out of the background.

The original image shot in 2004 with minimal post-processing.

There was a grapefruit tree behind him so I got rid of any distracting grapefruits and used lens vignetting to darken the edges of the background and draw the eye to the center. It aslo gives the effect that the small pool of light around him is solely from the flaming sword.

The 2011 refined version with more clarity and vibrance.

Click on these images to see the differences in the larger versions. This was a good practice for me to revisit these images to see how my eye and technique have evolved over the years. I have to admit that as comfortable as I have always been in Photoshop and on the computer, most of the refinement of my eye and technique has taken place in the last year.

Available Light Mode

I’m not talking about a setting on the camera (although that could be cool), I’m talking about a setting in my brain.

My background is in studio photography. My very first shoot was a product shoot for a tech company. Most of my fashion was done in the studio or at an indoor location. When someone says “photo shoot”, I automatically think “lights”.

I did a corporate headshot recently in the office of the company president. I brought my lighting case and started setting up lights with soft boxes. The president was duly impresses and uttered, “All this for me?”. I made adjustments and started taking some photos. I couldn’t get the shallow depth of field I wanted because there was so much light I had to stop down. I finished when I felt I had enough good shots and turned off the lights. I pulled one of the soft boxes away and noticed some good light coming through the window. I set up my bounce so the subject was between the window and the bounce. I asked if we could take a few more and was able to set the f-stop wide open and get the look I wanted. Of the two, I definitely like elements of the the natural light portrait better, especially the bokeh in the background. Unfortunately, the lighting one turned out sharper.

Portrait on the left was with studio lighting, on the right with available light.

I can’t say I regret setting up the lights because it made for a nice presentation, but in the end, it’s the image that matters. I could have most impressive lighting set-up in the world, but if the final image doesn’t impress, I’m not going to get any repeat business.

I brought all my lights to a recent shoot for a tea company, mostly because it was a last minute shoot and I didn’t know what to expect. As soon as I got to the location, I knew I would leave my lights in the car and pulled out my 5-in-1 bounce. I used the bounce sparingly because the light was so perfect where we were shooting. Here's an example of using the reflector to bounce some warm light into the scene.

An uncorrected image shot only with available light.

An uncorrected image shot with a 5-in-1 reflector giving a warmer 'sunrise' tone.

I’ve heard other photographers talk about using natural light whenever possible and only resorting to lights when absolutely necessary. I’m starting to think in that direction.

I’m honest enough to admit that some of it has to do with ego. Early on, I felt that the thing that set me apart from an amateur photographer was my equipment, especially my lighting. It is a very dangerous mindset to get into. The image is what matters.

So now I’m consciously changing my mindset to think natural lighting first. I’m switching my brain into available light mode.