Image of the week (well sort of)

I try to spend one Friday a month just hopping from bookshop to bookshop looking for a little insiration and more often than not a fruity purchase. Like many photographers I have a stupid number of photography books which although are always nice to have, give no incentive to move house due to there combined weight and taking up whole room-ness. On today's book quest I came across 'Adventures In Tornado Alley' by Mike Hollingshead and although strictly speaking not a photography book its still flipping great. His website has a ton of information and may make you want to become a Storm Chaser, or maybe even a Storm Trooper.
I have always marveled at images of extreme nature, especially storms like the ones shown above.
As much as I dream of photographing such things, I don't think trying to use a 10/8 in these conditions would be ideal. But In photo speak they are photographs of storms and nothing more. But my, what photographs and I want more.....

"What did he just say?"

"He said theres a storm coming"

"I know"

End quote from the Terminator.

Who would like to be my assistant...

In between meets, greets and froffy coffee I managed to pop into the AOP today to view the Assistant Awards. I have always preferred these awards to the main ones which I mentioned here a while back. Maybe this is something to do with the fact that these images are always less commercial in nature and, If I may be so bold, very often more original (how dare you, I hear you cry)....Here are a few of my favorites.
As with students (see yesterdays post) I often think assistants get a bit of a raw deal at times, however, lately I have noticed a new breed of assistant. These new assistants ask questions like:
Whats the job? Who's it for? Who is it? (Who is it...!) and how much? (fair enough) And if they don't like the sound of it, they simply turn it down as if it was coffee flavoured ice cream. All well and good if there making a living, but in my assisting days you had to fight for these jobs and were glad any kind of assisting work. I understand photographers picking and choosing jobs, well actors do it why not photographers, but assistants, Give me a break and make me a cuppa (please get the joke).
If asked I will always tell young hopefuls that they are probably better off assisting a good photographer than going to college. They will certainly learn more technically and equally important will learn more about the business. And before you say how very dare you. If I had the choice again I would not of gone to college at all, but I may of read a few books...Oh, its like the film sliding doors...

I am shooting a male and female underwear catalog next week but unfortunately have enough assistants who I will be paying fifteen hundred pounds a day along with cream cakes and a back rub.

Party Time..

Well its 'End Of Year Show Time' again and all the hopefuls and new talents will be collecting there discounted or 'under fixed' prints for the show only to have them ruined when they try to dry mount them with a domestic clothes iron. At least that's what happened when I was a student.
I doubt things have changed much since I wore vintage charity shop clothes and lived of cheap beer and quick cook pasta.
I had my end of year college show at the Curson Gallery on Windmill Street in London. A great little gallery although they no longer exhibit photography which is a shame.
We where each allowed to show two photographs, myself opting for a 'fashion portrait (give me strength) and a nude , which even back then was rather nice. That's all I really remember apart from that Mexican band that always seem to turn up at openings near the West End playing La Bamba and wearing Sombrero hats.
I really do feel that students are given a bit of a bad rap these days, in fact I think its always been the case, but like anyone about to embark on some kind of photographic career, I wish them all the very best.
I should point out that I will not be going to any of the shows as there is always that danger of drinking too much and reverting back to my student youth, unable to remember where I live...

A few tasty bites...

Heres a few of my latest images (as promised). These and more will appear on my site in the next few weeks. I thought I would include the 'Spaceship' image in keeping with the alien landscape of Lanzarote, island of volcanoes and camel riding tourists.
I particularly enjoying making images in places you would never expect, and holiday resorts are one of my favorites. Apart from sunshine, booze, nice food, fridge magnets and fun activities there are always images to be found, especially ones of a quirky nature.
So next time your clubbing in Ibiza, or on the rampage in Malaga, take a moment and look around, I'll be the weirdo with the big camera and a floppy hat.

Thats nice, wheres the rest....

When I was at college long ago the final year was all about the 'Portfolio.' Back then it was simple: Landscape or Portrait, Leather or Plastic, but most important of all it was , 'How many prints should be in the final book?' Too many and people may get board, too few, and people wouldn't take you seriously, so on and so forth.
But today with the 'Digital Revolution' combined with the ever popular 'PROJECT' we are faced with websites sometimes containing hundreds of images. Theres project 1,2,3,4 and 5, commissioned work, personal work, recent work, archives, short films, bios, blogs, poems, favorite foods and maybe a self portrait with there pet. Try putting all that in a portfolio case.
It should be pointed out that my own print folio has 96 images which is basically four projects. But my gallery portfolio only has 12. I should also apologise to my agent who has to lugg my folio all over the place.
The problem these days is that people expect to see so much more. You show twenty images, they want to see another twenty. I have found this particularly true of galleries and after spending a whole week printing and getting the series just right the last thing you want to hear is "These are nice, wheres the rest?" So much for 'Less Is More'.

A real issue I have with web images is the quality factor. Where as I think its fine to give someone a taster, they will never see the best of the image unless they look at a print. Lets face it a 10/8 contact print will always pull the pants off a 72 dpi 10/8 image on a computer screen and no one likes to wait thirty seconds for a high res an image to load (which they will then print out and put on there bathroom wall..)
So my friends, In an age where everything has to be now, let us remember not to sacrifice time for quality.
I'm off to see if I can fit four more images into my mighty portfolio. Stand aside yellow pages, or should I say, Yell.com...

"All Good Things To Those Who Wait"
Hanibal Lector. Silence Of The Lambs.

Fancy a Danish

Lately I have been finding so much excellent work online its making me feel a bit funny (a bit like climbing a rope in gym class) and I have been feeling a little overwhelmed, photographically. This of course doesn't stop the fact that there are millions of images out there that should be used as toilet paper but as they are all digital/virtual this might be quite difficult.
As I have mentioned previously I do love a lot of 'American' photography and have explained the many reasons why, but lately it would seem that a lot of Danish photographers are starting to fill the cowboy boots regarding fine photography...
Adam Jeppesen has a beautiful body of work and a nice number of images which is refreshing to see in a time when websites tend to have hundreds of images (more on that subject later)..

Neil Folberg

Neil Folberg's desert images quite magical, my favorite body of work being his Israel series. (Can you tell I am really into desert images at the moment.)
There is a lot of this style of work around at the moment but this guy has being at it a long time and has certainly set the standard.
American by birth I believe he now lives in Jerusalem and studied photography in the same realm as Ansel Adams (whatever that means). You may of heard of Adams, he used to do really nice black and white landscapes, particularly around Yoshmite in the U.S.