Lou Jones

Diary of a Reality Television Show

2013-04-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Photography on the USA Network show THE MOMENT
Airing on April 11, 2013 at 10pm

Once in a lifetime you submerge down the rabbit hole into a mirror opposite world – Wonderland, if you will. Mine started with a simple phone call, out of the blue. The kind of phone call you could never anticipate.

I was sitting in my studio, alone. The man on the phone introduce himself as producer for a new reality television show. The premise was to fulfill the wishes of weekly participants who wanted to resurrect a career they had to abandon earlier in their life. Now I am not a fan of reality TV. Cannot stand the Kardashians or The Apprentice. I have never seen any of those dance shows or singing shows. I watched Honey Boo Boo once to see what all the hulabaloo was about. Even so, I indulged the voice on the other end of the line. They were looking for a "mentor" who would coach the prospective, in this case sports photographer, towards her dream. A decent concept.

I bungled through my next statement, "So you want me to recommend someone who might be good at that?" Dead silence. "No. That's why we are calling YOU." Not taking the hint I told the voice that they definitely did not want me. "I am not camera-ready." After explaining that Sports Illustrated magazine had already recommended me, the production company had done much of the vetting and background checking, and still wanted to know if I was interested.

From that moment on we entered that fantasy world. For the next several weeks, I ran the gauntlet of online resumes and auditions. I talked about my years of chasing the world's best games and biggest athletes at fourteen summer and winter Olympics, shooting basketball and football and aerobatics and sailing. I learned how to emote over Skype. I recounted the instincts and reactions necessary to capture peak action. I showed off my personal wardrobe and answered loaded questions about photography, in particular, sports photography.

I always felt I was just one of many the TV show was interviewing. I never for a minute thought they would choose me. I was just going through the motions to find out more about the process, how these things really work. And to assess my "TV worth". Eventually I talked to legal, got myself an agent, signed contracts and sold my soul.

On a parallel reality, I was pursuing another assignment for a corporate client. Both conversations were filled with heavy negotiations. On the one hand, I was suggesting appropriate tests and exercises to hone the skills of their potential TV student. And on the other hand, my studio was applying for the special visas necessary to enter the Peoples Republic of China. The TV producers asked me to use my clout to get Nikon to donate all the cameras and lenses that would appear on the show. At the same time, I was amping up my workouts to build the endurance for the extreme weather, vigorous activities and stamina in a foreign country.

Possibly the worst day in my professional career came within the same twenty-four hours when both "clients" booked me for the same day: one in Los Angeles, the other in Guangzhou, China. Not a viable commute. I was physically ill. On the subway to an appointment I decided to decline the TV show. Turned out this was not an option. But after another series of negotiations, we were able to reschedule both jobs – back to back.

Hollywood was a real eye opener. I have photographed on movie sets, but this time was different. The crews were huge: first and second unit camera operators, soundmen, wardrobe, makeup, craft services. There was no script and we worked extremely quickly from scene to scene.

The host, Kurt Warner, was an NFL Super Bowl champion. He is the spokesman and the one constant in all the episodes. The episode star, Tracie Marcum, lost her wedding photography studio when her life had been turned upside. After the principals surprised her in her hometown with the opportunity to appear on the show, I took over to help her realize the dream of becoming a sports photographer (and to be the comic relief).

After the first day of shooting, I called my studio back in Boston and told Leah, my studio manager, to use my frequent flyer miles to come to Hollywood. There was a lot to be learned by observing production at this level. Behind the scenes was the real education. After all, this was Tinseltown – Hollywood – the Land of Dreams.

Each day my job was to yell, prod and cajole my participant through the multiple skills necessary to become a competent sports photographer. Obviously day after day, the emotions varied like a sinusoidal wave. Feelings ran high.

A while after we wrapped the production, I did some sleuthing and tracked down my costar, Tracie. I wanted to know what had happened to her. Did she get her wish or not? We actually had a reunion of sorts. I was not sure about our disposition because I probably stepped over the line in one of the sequences when I got in her face. Her whole demeanor changed and her face went dark. She told me later that was when she realized what I was telling her and the wisdom I was imparting. We have become good friends and stay in touch with email and FACEBOOK, etc. It is strange seeing yourself on television. The promo ads for the premiere show are in high rotation on television every night. And our episode is the first one to kick off the series. It will air on April 11, 2013 at 10pm on USA Network. I guess they have confidence in our chapter. "We had good chemistry."

Call time on the last day came very early in the morning. In the evening after my last shot, I walked off the set, shook a few hands, thanked the crew for nursing me through the arduous project and got into a limousine that spirited me to LAX where I met my other client. We flew all night to Asia, drove four hours to the first location and immediately began shooting my next assignment. You've got to take the work when you get it.

DONT LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT: what's in my camera bag?

2013-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

We have all found ourselves slogging through swamps, soaking wet, cursing mosquitoes and the heavy camera bag we are lugging. RIGHT? Or scaling the side of a snow covered mountain and swearing to yourself about the load of lenses obeying the laws of gravity? I have. It gave me the idea for this blog.

Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine is abnormally curved. It can be congenital or caused by disease but my doctor tells me mine is from many years of carrying my photography equipment on my left shoulder.

As intrepid, itinerant, travel photographers, we are assigned to transport the tools of our trade everywhere. But that job comes at a price. Cameras and lenses are heavy. And the heavier they are, the more they influence your attitude and enthusiasm for carrying them. You may not be able to muster the energy to take that next shot if you are giving piggyback rides to too much gear.

While there are lots of blogs and videos about "What is in my camera bag?", they are mostly what kind of pricey cameras and lenses are necessary to take pictures. That’s all about machismo. But the devil is in the details. This article is about all the other stuff a working commercial/fine art photographer might need to make his/her vision visible, in other words, the grip gear.

Of course 1) cameras are the most important fixture. I carry lots of them. My weapons of choice are primary bodies and top of the line dSLRs for most commercial jobs. I am responsible for giving my clients the best in quality and capability.

For example, when I shoot a Winter Olympics, conditions insist on camera bodies with rapid motordrives and ability to survive extreme temperatures. But for advertising, such as billboards or posters, clients do not need the speed or robustness but may require the highest resolution. Not every assignment calls for every option. Weight, size and portability may dictate otherwise. For my street photography my choice is "smaller is better". I always put a glorified point and shoot in my pocket. Don't leave home without it.

2) Lenses have similar criterion. They are also heavy and possibly more important than the "black boxes" they attach to. As I have often said, "Lenses have personalities." Each one gives you a "look" that is unique to its focal length. To take full advantage of their personalities, you have to have some of them on hand.

As my career has progressed my favorite lens has changed. It has gotten shorter as time passes. As I have gotten braver, I like to get closer to my subjects for most street photography. To cut down on quantity, I have adapted more zoom lenses. Therefore fewer cover everything from 10mm to 200mm. (When you need that fisheye nothing will take its place but a fisheye.)

I have developed very specific physical exercises to condition myself to carry everything during my meanderings. But for travel or extreme photography where weight and size are tantamount, I carry smaller, slower cameras to save my back. I pack extras of everything, but dump what I don't need in the hotel room until I do.

Once I had to climb to the top of the mast of a tall ship sailing at sea. Besides being scared out of my wits, I took only one camera body and a short, zoom lens stuffed into my coat. Holding on to the rat lines for dear life I achieved a once in a lifetime shot. Hanging nearly upside down, most of the credit goes to the huge pockets in my jacket for that assignment.

Cameras are only the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface are all the ancillary items that support our obsessive habit. To keep all this hardware active you need power. Cameras and speedlights devour energy at an unprecedented rate. 3) Batteries are a weak link. Every item requires energy and every gadget uses a different type battery. You also should have backups and the irony is exacerbated because you have to carry 4) chargers for each one. Chargers offer no other benefit but you cannot survive without a number of them. More weight. More complexity.

A major problem use to be having an adequate supply of film. This was of great concern if you were on the road for extended periods of time. Also navigating security at airports around the world was/is insanity. But we still have to capture onto some form of digital media. Enter 5) flash cards.

Why is it that camera manufacturers have long agonized over making all types of equipment compatible so they interchange between different camera models, but mix battery types and digital media with no compunction? It is a huge problem for the working photographer. Recording media evolves so quickly that keeping up is almost impossible. Compact flash cards grow smaller and lighter and cheaper, but we have to care for them with the same concern as film.

I once thought I had been robbed of all my exposed cards during an assignment at Taj Mahal in India. I was sick for several hours until I located them.

Since we have gotten so used to manipulating everything in post production, filters and gels have become less integral to initial capture. White balance, color correction and adding colors and tints are often done after the fact. However, I still carry a couple of 6) filters with me. My kit always includes a polarizing filter. It does several things you cannot easily simulate in post: cuts down on glare and increases saturation; adds color contrast especially in skies and with clouds; and an overlooked usage: polarizers double as a neutral density substitute for slower shutter speeds or wider apertures.

The next most important noncamera tool is probably some form of 7) cable release. They can be mechanical or electronic even wireless. There are apps for cell phones to initiate an exposure on your camera remotely. However, I believe in simplicity because the more complicated devices will often fail in a pinch.

On one trip to Havana, Cuba I was escorted up several flights of stairs to investigate some wonderful live music. The building was a worn down, ramshackle relic and there was no electricity. The hallway and stairwell were pitch black. I was rapidly chasing my "guide" as he was sprinting up the stairs. I couldn't see a thing. Fortunately I whipped out my handy dandy, miniature flashlight. It kept me from stumbling over what turned out to be bodies who inhabited the space the whole way up. I could have killed myself or an innocent bystander.

Therefore I always carry a 8) small flashlight: in dark situations, at night, in dark studios, in caves, to find your way to the outhouse. Flashlights are an emergency instrument. Having them on hand is critical and they have to be reliable. I have experimented with several models over the years. I now also use a flashlight app that I downloaded onto my cell phone.

In the bottom of my bag there is always a 9) compass. It gets more use than you might think, not only for following directions but to predict sunrise/sunset. You might assume your clients or locals are aware of where the sun is everyday but most "civilians" have no comprehension of their physical surroundings. Again, there are apps on cell phones that serve as GPS, compass, latitude/longitude, etc. but you need decent mobile reception and remote destinations may hamper that.

I fill the ensemble out with some sort of 10) multitool, i.e. a Leatherman, Craftsman or Swiss Army knife. It should have a knife, scissors, screwdriver, maybe pliers, etc. I even found one that had a wine bottle corkscrew. Be careful. I have forgotten and had them confiscated at airport security more times than I care to remember. I mailed it back to myself numerous times too.

In addition I always have 11) ear plugs. I use them maybe once/twice a year but they save my hearing inside industrial plants and race car pitstops; various 12) USB cables for connecting cameras to my laptop while on the road; small roll of 13) gaffers tape which repairs literally everything; various 14) pens including a Sharpie; a stack of 15) model releases for adults and minors.

Most amateur photographers look outside to evaluate the weather and only shoot when it is sunny and pleasant. The real photographer often has to shoot in or may seek inclement conditions. On those occasions and in emergencies, you have to take care of your stuff when it is raining or snowing. I have tested everything to keep my cameras dry and it is an impossible task. Fortunately good dSLRs are built to withstand the worst situations. But why tempt the fates?

We all laugh at the zany, pedantic television commercials stumping the 16) SHAMWOW cloths. But I use them to cover my cameras and clean my lenses whenever there is moisture. They work wet and dry. And they are better than cloth or paper towels and nearly as good as plastic bags. One resides in my camera bag all the time.

The container that holds all this paraphernalia must be mentioned. A couple of decades ago the camera bag itself became a hot button topic. An industry grew up to design and manufacture bags to fulfill every fantasy. In any place photographers gathered it has been debated: trade association meetings, camera clubs, bars, magazines, etc. DON'T get caught up in this argument. NEVER. It just does not matter. Camera bags come in various forms, shapes and sizes: traditional shoulder models, backpacks, waist mounted, with wheels, etc. You can carry your tools in a plastic grocery bag if you wish. Ultimately, it is a matter of personal preference, necessity and pocketbook.

My favorite camera bag was given to me as a birthday present by my studio staff. I adapted to it rather than the other way around. It served me for just a few months short of a decade. I patched and taped it together for years. It looked nasty and acquired just the right "patina" from wear and tear.

Often I do not feel I can tote a tripod. As important as they are, I may need to travel fast and light. Instead, a permanent fixture of my camera bag is a 17) monopod. (Technically it is not IN my bag but hanging from it.) It is small and compact and increases my facility, especially with long lenses. With it, the average photographer can gain almost two additional stops slower shutter speed. It is a great perch for all other lenses too. Be sure to bury it in your checked luggage when boarding airplanes as mine has been confiscated at checkpoints.

One item I often mention but is very pedestrian is a 18) 15-20 foot common electrical cord. Hotel rooms are notorious for not having/not having enough electrical outlets. You have to plug all your stuff in and a $6 extension cord with multiple three-prong outlets or small power strip can keep you in business. I do not usually carry a zip cord in my camera bag but it comes along for the ride because it keeps all the rest of the paraphernalia running.

In a 48 hour round trip to Paris the only outlet I could find was in the bathroom. The long cord extended to my laptop, battery chargers and cell phone while I watched television from the bed.

REMEMBER! Just toss in a passport and you can go anywhere your heart desires.

PhotoPlus Expo Over The Years

2012-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

My fiscal year ends and begins in October. The PhotoPlus Expo held in New York City marks the culmination of all things photo. Another great seminar – thanks to all who attended. Now I hit the ground running across the USA with a large, repeat client.

When traveling to New York City to seek work in the early 1980s, I visited several friends with studios near the Flatiron Building. The area soon became known as the Photo District because there were so many lofts inhabited by the highest density of photographers in the world. I eventually rented an office on W21st Street and when walking around at dusk, the whole street would be intermittently lighted by strobes flashing on virtually every floor of the surrounding buildings. It was one of the oddest sensations and only industry "insiders" had any idea what was causing the phenomenon.

Out of this community arose a thin, cheaply printed newsletter that soon spread outside of the neighborhood to studios all across the country. I thought I was so hip having early editions mailed to me in Boston. Photo District News (PDN) was born accidentally and out of necessity.

I may not have attended the first PhotoPlus Expo in 1982, I think I did, but I have missed very few since. It claims to be the largest photography convention in North America. Most of my colleagues paced the crowded floor viewing, fondling and testing all sorts of cameras, film, enlargers, papers, and chemistry. Green envy overwhelmed empty pocketbooks. This is the ultimate "candy store" for professional photographers. Everyone had to own the latest item. The manufacturers and the end-users came together, nose-to-nose, to buy, sell, and kibitz.

One year while preparing to shoot the Olympics, I spied a huge 600mm f/4 lens behind a glass counter at a booth. I inquired as to how much a thing like that costs. The salesman laughed in my face. He sputtered, "If they were available, it would cost you a Hyundai. But they are back ordered." To save face I gave him my business card. He looked at my title and noticed that I was a national board member of the ASMP. I had never exploited my position, but I got a phone call a couple of weeks later. The telephoto had suddenly become available. With it I have shot many Olympic Games (after cobbling together the exorbitant downpayment).

Otherwise not interested in equipment, I strolled around the hall looking at the plastic identification cards on everyone's chest. Each time I recognized a name, I nervously introduced myself. These were my heroes. These were the bylines I read in every magazine on the newsstands. My fellow conventioneers were a veritable Who's Who of photography: Jay Maisel, Bill Eppridge, Gregory Heisler, Matthew Jordan Smith, Rick Sammon, Gerd Ludwig, Syl Arena, Chris Rainier, Chase Jarvis, and many others. (If a terrorist were to explode a bomb, the photography world would never recover.) These brief encounters added up over the years. As a consequence of all that schmoozing, I can no longer move ten feet without running into some "old friend" that I only see on that same spot on the floor of PPE.

My most embarrassing moment happened when I took a seminar just to meet Francesco Scavullo. RIP. I had loved his pictures for years. He was doing a demonstration and the room was packed. His assistants were scurrying around and the models were primping. Scavullo wore tight black pants and a flamboyant white silk blouse that flowed with his every movement. All of a sudden something went wrong. The strobes failed and everything stopped. Without skipping a beat, the famous fashion photographer asked the audience for questions to waste time as the problem was being fixed. I was all the way in the back of the room and my hand went up. He called on me and I asked if he would autograph my book. The place was stunned. Everybody was aghast that I had such chutzpah to ask this inappropriate question. I knew that, but did it anyway. I passed the coffee-table book, like in a crowd surfing mosh pit, to the front. He signed and everyone passed the book back. I knew I would never penetrate the hangers-on and get close to him after the session. I treasure the book to this day.

Dates have changed, largely to avoid competing directly with the New York Marathon or Halloween. However, it happens. And when combined with all the usual tourists, hotel rooms are scarce. But getting on the elevator with skimpy-attired runners and bizarre costumes make the New York State of Mind more exciting. A few years ago on Halloween, I was invited to an industry party with high ranking guests. Everyone came dressed in costumes. I went dressed as a photographer. After the party, they went to Greenwich Village to see the boisterous parade and checked another thing off the 100 Things to Do Before You Die list.

Over the years we have seen many things change. We survived the transition from film to digital. We witnessed Kodak and Polaroid disappear, and Epson and Adobe emerge. 47th Street Camera morphed into B&H. Of course the names changed just like the laws. What was once Friday, Saturday, Sunday is now Wednesday through Saturday. Because Orthodox Jews represent such a large proponent of the industry, we all observe Sabbath along with them. The whole phenomenon became more democratic...inclusive. And the wedding/event photographers and amateurs changed the complexion even more.

Outside the Jacob Javits Convention Center, the real world may not know what is happening inside the glass monstrosity, but their "mirror to the world" is being renegotiated and rearranged. The best photographers, agencies, manufacturers, and publishers are reformatting and recomposing every photograph that sees the light of day.

However, as much business as is being done in the Javits, even more goes on behind the scenes -dinners and parties all over the West Side. The Bash that PDN throws every year gives strangers a chance to let their hair down and hobnob with others just like themselves. On a few memorable years, the dance floor throbbed as couples sweated and bounced in time to the music, shoulder to shoulder with other strangers. The mashups have been great for everyone.

During Game 6 of the World Series in 1986, they brought television sets in to a party for everyone to watch because the New York Mets were playing. In a vivid flashback, I remember walking in and everyone razing me. My Boston Red Sox were one out from winning and people blamed me. (No one was aware I also hated the Red Sox.) All of a sudden Bill Buckner committed his career ending error and the hometown team went on to win. In an hour I went from arch enemy to the butt of eternal jokes, for years after.

Somehow along the way I have had the good fortune of standing at the front of the room, teaching several different seminars. I have sat on panels and lectured to large, captivated audiences. Some of my subjects have included travel photography, long term documentary projects, annual reports, publishing books, and most recently, speedlights. It is a way of staying relevant in the ever changing photography landscape.

Recently a few people have stopped me on my way around the convention and requested an autograph. I guess I have been coming here too long.

Happy Birthday Red Sox

2012-10-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday dear FENWAY... It has been a long time since I moved here, and it has taken me that long to be able to sing those words.

I moved to Boston from Washington, D.C. The last baseball team I rooted for was the defunct Washington Senators. Sneaking out of town and abandoning dedicated fans had left the capital teamless for over four decades, and me shell shocked. My father was a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan, but that only left a hole in my expectations. I harbored a grudge.

Boston was a dichotomy of artistic and cultural progress built over a simmering powder keg of social and racial repression. Its sports teams for generations reflected the real personality of the city and the "complexion" of the sports franchises: resistant to change. Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox fielded teams that looked nothing like the rest of the leagues.

Sports are supposed to transcend politics, but anyone who does not listen to sports talk radio knows better. Cities are mortal enemies because their teams are in the same division. Brothers and sisters gripe because they grow up cheering for opposing players. If the Red Sox were in the playoffs when school started in the fall, fewer rocks were thrown at buses transporting children to schools in order to desegregate the public school system.

Slowly times changed and so did the recruiting. All the teams got new management and owners who recognized that winning made them more money. In the last eight years, every one of the big teams has won championships. Boston can lay claim to "best sports city in the USA". The public energy surrounding their ascendancy has been fascinating to watch. I am a fan.

Late one evening while on assignment, my college classmate phoned me. My assistant was driving and my client was riding shotgun. We had just left him in southern Florida and were driving north to catch another plane. He told me to watch the lunar eclipse. Since we were both science geeks who had attended school with people just like those starring in "The Big Bang Theory", the celestial phenomenon was a big deal to us. Staring out the car window, it was beautiful. At the same time I told my assistant to turn on the car radio. The Sox were playing. Fully expecting to hear the worst, the play-by-play guy eventually announced that Boston had won the World Series.

When I first started photographing at FENWAY PARK, it took just a phone call to get a press pass. The "Curse of the Bambino" had kept World Series rings off Red Sox ballplayer's fingers. During many seasons the stadium was sparsely populated. Some years, only the diehards could be found scarfing down Fenway Franks and Cracker Jacks and overpriced beers late in the season. The PR department would let anyone who had an excuse and a camera take pictures.

Success has changed all that. The curse has been broken. Now it is a pain in the butt to gain access to any part of the team. Management wants to control every iota. In some respects, I cannot blame them, but there is a longstanding, tacit synergy between sports and photography. One does not thrive without the other. Fans extend far, far beyond the parks, pitches, fields and arenas where the games are played. Our cameras keep them close.

The venerable FENWAY PARK and the GREEN MONSTER celebrate 100 years this year. The stands are sold out now. I have gained permission to climb down into the photographer's pit along the third base line with my 600mm lens and contribute to the legend many times. Individually, I have had the pleasure of photographing Wade Boggs, Mo Vaughn, Roger Clemens and Nomar Garciaparra in the ballpark or in my studio. For a time they were like gods. It is ironic that they all left town under dubious controversies. Some signed baseballs for me. One even gave me advice about my hitting. But, all were total *ssholes; showing up late, abruptly curtailing shoots and just having "attitude" when they had agreed to the sessions...and the money. I take it in stride. After all I cannot hit a hundred mile an hour fastball.

PLAY BALL!

PRC 2012 Benefit Auction: Featuring Lou Jones

2012-09-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

One of my highly-stylized photographs from the long standing series “distressed” is being featured in the Photographic Resource Center’s 2012 Benefit Live Auction on October 13, 2012.

- Lou’s image & bio

For over 20 years, the PRC has hosted an auction to raise money so it can continue to support fine art and creative photography in New England. This event is an exciting opportunity for the photography, art, collecting, and gallery communities to celebrate this important Boston-based cultural institution.

- Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Other live auction works include photographs by Robert Capa, Bradford Washburn, Karin Rosenthal, Dominic Chavez, Henry Horenstein, Arno Minkkinen, and Marie Cosindas. The silent auction features 172 artists, including Ed Kashi and Elsa Dorfman.

Event Invitation
Featured Artists

Q&A: How To Get A Gallery Show

2012-09-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, an established photographer contacted me looking for advice on how to find a gallery that will show his work and the kind of work to submit, as he has spent many decades photographing portraits, furniture, architecture and more.

Having a decent gallery show takes quite a bit of time to develop. The myth of walking into a gallery and a curator offering you a show on the spot is fodder for movies, but otherwise unlikely. Anyone that can offer you a real show wants to see commitment and coherence in your portfolio. It helps to get your schtick under control. Spend time developing your vision and value. You have to have this before you go to owners and curators because they will only show work if it will make them money, LOTS OF IT. They are NOT going to take a chance on you unless there is a payoff.

How do you do that? Go to photo festivals where gallery owners, agents and curators are gathered to review your work. You pay to present to several of them, one at a time. If you choose well and find someone who likes your work, they MAY offer you some type of continuation, i.e. "show me work in a year" or get in touch with someone else that might be interested. Once in a great while you may hear from them to present your work at their institution or publication.

My advice to my students just starting out is to approach local institutions, cafes and libraries. It exposes them to the complexities of presenting their work and mounting some type of exhibit. There are also banks and companies that have very excellent galleries curated with the same zeal as that of a museum. Another trick is to go back to your alma mater. They may take a chance on an alumnus who is willing to show in their galleries. You can amass a large publicity program similar to mailings for commercial clients and send out information to prospective galleries, or you can try to use social networking to get work in front of them. Otherwise you have to contact people of interest to you and take your WELL-PRINTED portfolio and show cohesive collections of work.

But it all takes time. This is a brief synopsis for the long journey. No one makes money exhibiting except the huge stars. Mostly it is ego boosting. It will cost you lots of money to make inroads into the world, a world that is even more difficult and opaque than the commercial world. But it take a semester to learn the basics and a lifetime to get anywhere with that knowledge.

Hey Rube! Carnivals Circuses Fairs

2012-08-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, "This American Life" on National Public Radio (NPR) did a broadcast episode about carnivals. It brought back cobwebs of memories. I was no older than eight. My parents imagined giving my sister and me the "Leave It to Beaver" summer family vacation experience. We traveled to Wildwood, New Jersey.

The boardwalk was the center of all life. We spent time on it every day. It was alien, dangerous but seductive. Every adventure was fraught with anxiety and anticipation. At that age, I was afraid of absolutely everything: the ocean, the dark, strangers, my own shadow. But once I survived, I continued to return because each razzle-dazzle concession was more compelling than the last. I shot my first guns at unattainable targets on the boardwalks, never winning anything. I met "best friends" I never saw again. We ran rampant on the side streets and underneath the piers. After bumping, gyrating, levitating and careening on every ride, I realized that anything was possible.

After sunset, the arcade really came to life. It lit up brighter than Xmas. The oompah-manufactured music from dueling calliopes presented an ever repeating soundtrack. They butchered sentimental favorites and top ten tunes alike. Old Suzanna never sounded so bad. I loved it. And the barkers enticed rubes by the carload to view nature's "mistakes", hidden behind forbidden doors so as not to frighten passersby. I never saw any of them. I was too young and had no money. But my imagination swears they were all real.

Subject of many novels and movies, carnivals and circuses are the backdrop for American legends. Their reputations escalate in hyperbole with each passing generation. Negative connotations embellish every rumor. A struggle between good and evil is fought inside every fairground joint. Each carnie is trained to bilk unsuspecting shills from their money. Sex is around every corner. The pitchmen are all scam artists and assemble from the most despicable reprobates, gypsies, convicts and perverts. Their spiels are folk literature that grip you just below the heart and pull you through the curtains.

Early in my career, I followed circuses for some of the same reasons. They were mysterious and insurmountable. Whereas the acts were wonderful, their nefarious existence in the wagons circled behind the Big Top was fodder for my camera. I beseeched friends who were doing marketing to get me into Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, as well as the now defunct Clyde Beatty Circus. I traveled hundreds of miles to sneak into second rate, jackpot circuses. The tackier the better.

When I was younger I found myself partying with the beautiful show girls who wore sequins and rode the elephants. I invited roustabouts back to my studio and swapped my pitiful stories with vagabonds who had experienced the expanses and byways of America.

But, the fraternity of performers was not always welcoming to interlopers like me. It was made known that they did not appreciate my presence. I was cursed, spat upon and yelled at often. But since I was only cursorily interested in what was going on under the big lights, backstage was my bailiwick. So I persisted.

Show business myth and its reality have nothing to do with each other. Once in a dirty, sweaty, florescent-lit, underground dressing room, my assistant, almost in tears, admitted that the backstage experience shattered her image of the happy fantasy (and that she had always been afraid of the clowns).

County and state fairs are another issue altogether. They are Americana. It is where the rural of 4-H clubs meets the urban of games of chance, rides and neon lights. Prized, family-pet pigs are awarded blue ribbons while teenagers puke riding the Tilt-a-Whirl. Parents drag their kids back to recollect memories matching their childhoods. People do stupid things and are proud of it. They strap themselves into frightening, bone-crushing rides in the name of fun. They eat wretched foods with a smile and rubs shoulders with characters they would never talk to in their ordinary, humdrum lives. Tattoos, cotton candy and fried dough. It's concentrated nostalgia.

I teach my students studying "street photography" that if you want to break into it, you should go to places where there are lots of people gathered trying to have fun. Not only are they great sites for interesting photography, but people drop their guards and are not as suspicious of photographers. So I follow my own advice and seek out festivals as I travel around the world. I pay an admission fee and enjoy the potential energy of everything inside. Weird juxtapositions and the most diverse demonstrations of humanity are outlined under the glaring lights of the midway. Traditional, contemporary and bizarre are in close proximity. You can see the full spectrum of local society by turning in a 360 degree circle. It is unbelievable. And most often, no one minds you taking their picture.

One Penny Post

2012-05-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

In photography’s infancy first came the carte-de-visite. A fashionable gentleman would make a social call and leave his picture card on a silver tray in the parlor. Then in the 1850s, after Napoleon iii posed for his formal portrait, they became all the rage. During the Civil War, photographers documented families for posterity. The small albumen prints gained tremendous momentum as soldiers marched off to battle. Millions were sold. They were sent in great numbers at the height of European colonialism.

Carte-de-visites were the first fashion photography

The first postcard was mailed in the USA at that time. Postcard collecting was spurred by the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Prior to 1898, only the US Post Office could manufacture postcards. The most prolific and inventive years of postcard design were from 1902-18. This period is commonly referred to as “the Golden Age”. In 1908 more than 677 million postcards were mailed.

Penny Postcard

When I was a kid you could mail a postcard for a penny—1¢. Now granted that was a long time ago but you have to admit you got a lot of service for $.01. The printing of the stamp costs more than that. There was a time when the postcard cost only a penny too. Unfortunately along with the penny postcard, the art of writing a letter or postcard has also disappeared.

Communist Artform

Before email and targeted mailing lists, FACEBOOK, blogging, I used to send postcards to friends and potential clients from the far reaches of the globe. It was a little piece of photographic art for about fifty cents. I tracked down vintage black/white photographs, hokey scenics from remote giftshops, rescued an illimitable supply of visual puns, even mailed back bad photography if that was all I could find. A labor of love. It takes effort to find and buy and write and mail one and in that act a kind of alchemy occurs. In some places my search for stamps was tantamount to a quest for the Holy Grail. I often spent more time than was justifiable since I had to find a post office, stand in line and communicate what I was trying to do (and where) without the benefit of language. Because I was functionally illiterate, I developed a sixth sense. Question: o;hia fkj*f asd and df#gv? My answer: USA?

Postkarte (German), Tarjeta postal (Spanish), Vykort (Swedish), Pohlednice (Czech), Pocztówki (Polish), Briefkaart (Dutch)

In some environments the process of posting is its own challenge. One time, at the last minute, my hotel had run out of stamps. I bribed the concierge to track some down and mail my small stack after I had checked out. Back home I held my breath. There is something inherently optimistic about trusting that a stamp substitute will commandeer your expectations through the international mails. They all arrived safely—weeks later—but they got there.

On different assignments I mailed postcards from behind the Iron Curtain, out of Africa, blockaded islands and Third World territories. Slow telegrams. When I schlepped my portfolio around, from time to time I would see my postcards tacked to art director’s walls.

In my book travel+PHOTOGRAPHY: Off the Charts I talk about my often limited schedule and, if I am in an unfamiliar city, how I will track down a shop where I can buy postcards. I use them to guide me to the salient monuments and landmarks in the area so I can quickly shoot images with the card as reference. Postcard venues have been vetted by the locals and represent the places most tourists want to see. I collect the better ones and then mail the others off.

However in photography the phrase “looks like a postcard” has both good and bad connotations: Good in the sense that the place is idyllic and worthy of note, Bad because it is average, touristy, mediocre.

Collecting

Deltiology is the study of and collecting postcards. They are one of the top three collectibles in the world along with coins and stamps. Retail is conducted, hidden in antique malls, mildewed church basements and obscure local auctions. They satisfy our need to preserve these remnants from the scrap heap. Like baseball, sports cards, there are conventions and fairs that buy/sell/trade. On any Sunday you will find collectors pawing through boxes and boxes of moldy, old cardboard with hundreds of other geeks searching for that perfect “find”, rescuing an overlooked treasure from obscurity. On the rare occasion that happens, then the bargaining begins.

The staggering volume of ephemera one sees on eBay and in flea markets and in every gift shop on the planet provides a clear sense of how common the urge once was and how durable it remains. Illegible handwritten messages decorate and add to the value. Postmarks are sought by some collectors and those inscribed by famous people even more so.

Disposable

Irrespective of the handwritten text on the back, postcards tell stories: past, present and future; about journeys, their senders and their origins. Even the stamps have a story to tell. Postcards are ephemeral pieces of visual culture. They are commonly perceived as the most quotidian form of communication. They are a low cost, non-threatening, disposable medium. The fast food, drive-thru of advertising. Hotels give them away. Souvenir shops sell them for cheap. Yet they are priceless for the memories they invoke.

Poetry

Postcards provide proof of travel, often proof of the exotic. They make foreign locations seem attainable. They verify real adventure and inflame the pedestrian ones. The typical postcard suggests perfection but perfection does not exist. So the postcard is often a “little white lie”. Travelers send postcards to shock people at home, tempt them, make friends envious. Oneupsmanship. Postcards are the poetry of the casual traveler. Efficient.

To mail back a postcard is to put your brand on a new “possession”, your imprint—marking your territory. We collect new places and prove it with a postcard. Locals do not use postcards. It is purely a tourist thing, like pith helmets and photo vests.

In today’s world of high powered WiFi, email and FedEx, postcards are a throwback. They are like downmarket Rand Mcnally in this new world of Google Maps. They conjure up a place in a manner that technology has rendered obsolete. Nobody writes anymore. A postcard is to a letter as a tweet is to an email. Besides they are not an accurate view of anywhere. They straighten out the curves and wrinkles of any destination.

To collectors the most sought after types are called Real Photo Postcards, RPPCs. No subject has been safe from being featured. Nudity, racism, crime, dead bodies, politics, advertising. The “most popular” scenic pre 1910 was Niagara Falls. Large sized postcards are called Continental. Those cancelled in the US prior to 1 July 1898 are called Pioneer. A fad placing the postage stamp on the same side as the image was termed timbre cote vu. The phrase informed authorities that the stamp was on the view side.

My collection now numbers in the thousands. I only keep photographs—RPPCs. One of my first was push pinned to a cork bulletin board over my desk from a cross country trip as a Boy Scout. A polychrome rectangle ornamented with graphics and a caption on back reminding me of where I had been. Fat, uppercase letters adorn the picture side and offer up GREETINGS from NEW MEXICO. Part of a photo is outlined by each letter of the state name. A cactus in the “E”, adobe surrounded by the “M”, the “X” held the state flag. Conspicuously there are no Indians. It was a different time.

Wish you were here.

Photographic Roadwarriors: Carry-on Luggage

2012-04-12T10:07:00.001-07:00

A few seasons ago I presented my client with an invoice for $6000. It was the bill for extra & overweight baggage on airlines for just one project. That did not include one ticket, one meal, no hotels or assistants & no photography fees. Just bags. For years I had been traveling with basically the same amount of equipment whittled down to a quite manageable pile but in recent times the airlines realized that they could exploit extra fees for luggage. My client was NOT amused.

The implications for destroying a longstanding career were obvious. It was quickly becoming too expensive to travel as a photographer. I had made a study for circumventing all the legalities & logistics of being a photographic road warrior. I had learned through colleagues & the "school of hard knocks" how to squeeze every ounce from the rules of travel & I had remained flexible for all the changes security & space allotments had applied. But this was a quantum leap in new fees & noone was being sympathetic to the photographer's plight.

It was obvious before my next big assignment I had to solve the problem. By coincidence & in parallel with all this turmoil, I had experimented with & written a book on speedlights: Speedlights & Speedlites: Creative Flash Photography at Lightspeed. For many jobs these small, compact flashes had become an amazing asset to my arsenal of techniques. In fact my coauthors & I were making the point that these computerized lights were capable of handling most of today's multitude of lighting tasks.

With trepidation we slowly converted to doing all location assignments with a much smaller kit. Enter LOWEPRO. With their suggestions & help we completely scaled down the amount of equipment we carry on many jobs. We experimented with all sorts of normal cases & backpacks. Now all cameras & all lights go into luggage that we carry onboard. Lightstands & tripods & larger devices continue to be stowed underneath the plane but we stuff speedlights, attachments & modifiers into two rollerboard cases (LOWEPRO Pro Roller x100 & Pro Roller x200). My assistant carries one & I carry the other. In addition we have compartmentalized all the equipment so if one case gets lost or separated we have enough in each to finish most jobs. My "one additional carryon" is my large camera bag.

The Lowepros fit into most overhead luggage bins on most larger airplanes & one is always stuffed with my laptop computer. They absorb a lot of abuse because we take the cases into very bizarre industrial environments as well as into hostile territories. One or both of the Lowepro bags has been to France, Russia, India & Brazil as well as over a dozen US states in the last two years.

One thing noone talks about is how easy they are to inspect when going through security. I found myself running the gauntlet at an airport in India & the guards were making a big deal of the items inside my Lowepro. They had no idea what they were looking at or what to do with me. Eventually after the manager weighed in & threw up his hands, we were left to the discretion of one minion. He was being pressured by three loud, obnoxious Australian youths to hurry because they were in danger of missing their plane. I was next & to spite them he was taking his slow time taking every flash & wire out & holding it up to everyone's amusement except mine. However things came out & went back in easily. I made my plane by the skin of my teeth. I have no idea what happened to the Aussies behind me.

Hotel Motel Holiday Inn

2012-02-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

Caveat emptor to all those who have to rent a room. For some they are housing, for others an opportunity for rebirth. From the minute you check in you can be anyone you want. You start with a clean slate. Anonymous. Invisible. Or you can adopt that bon vivant personality you have always felt to be your real self.

Unfortunately there are no guarantees. You can as easily end up in a penthouse suite with plush carpeting underneath your bare feet as a smarmy, fetid closet. Price & location are marginal barometers for quality. We have all fallen victim to hyperbole in travel brochures where the PR writer describes hotels as quaint (which really means small) or the marketing critic says the location is urban (which means slums).

Movies, novels mythologize them as palatial, marble-inlaid expanses with all actors in evening wear or as film noire caricatures with neon signs blinking HOT..L outside the open, fire-escaped window. Motels are sites for all sorts of intrigue, ghosts, murder, high jinks.

Constantly you hear the mantra “I want to get back to my own bed” & to familiar surroundings. I have never been deluded by this conceit. To be in a hotel room is almost certainty you are in a different state or country. Exotic. Romantic. Hotel rooms are portals to unimagined worlds & unexplored environments. Once through the looking glass over the vanity table in your room, anything is possible.

Hotel rooms modulate your travel. No matter the purpose for your visit, opening floor to ceiling balcony doors overlooking blue vistas of calm seas speckled with fishermen laboring in the silent distance or sleeping next door to boisterous drunken adolescents who feel entitled to make noise all night before your important business meeting taints your entire opinion.

Whether you live for days/weeks/months on the road or are coerced to take a week’s vacation once every few years, adventures ensue:

London
Having to recoup a ticket before it expired I booked a flight to London. Online I found a cheap room near the “Tube” & extremely convenient access to the city. About the third day I felt an itch & after returning home I found myself in an emergency room receiving a dire diagnosis from the attending medical student until the “real” doctor entered & informed me I had bed bugs. Took me months to get rid of the scars.

Creature comforts are highly personal affairs. I have seen travel companions carry their own pillows to enhance their stays. To each his own. For an extended annual report assignment I had a client insist on changing her room every time she was next to the elevator or ice machine. I had no objection to her peccadilloes but she had a way of making her problems mine. I can sleep on a rock.

Palermo
After checking in without fanfare I was awakened too early by a Boeing 727 taking off right outside my window (at least it seemed that way). It was so loud not even pulling a pillow over my head could drown out the din. Everything felt like those pay-per-use, vibrating Magic Fingers under the mattress but, in this case, everything in the room moved. I was shooting around the island of Sicily & spent almost no time there but I am sure this airport hotel had many disgruntled customers.

Since I spend so much time in bargain basement surroundings, I have to make Spartan facilities work for me. Motels become my home-away-from-home as well as office & headquarters. Communicating with the world has become an art form. Mastering the telephones is torturous. I have fought phones for decades. Every country has a highly classified system that would thwart the Mission Impossible team. In addition every hotel chain plots to make it even more complicated.

I carry a laptop everywhere. Getting online has presented problems behind the Iron Curtain, from remote island villages & out of Cuba. It has cost a fortune to use unreliable dial-up telephone lines. Today the scam is whether to charge for WIFI. The final bill is inversely proportional to the likelihood you pay for access. Economy hotels seem to give it away whereas the higher priced ones feel they can charge a king’s ransom. Go figure.

Kyoto
On my annual assignment to Japan I once checked into a room so small that it was fabricated out of one molded piece of plastic. It was easier to go outside to turn around. The bed, shower & sink combination was a masterpiece of design & you could occupy all three at the same time. There were no corners, everything was rounded. Turns out proper protocol in Japan is to stay at a very tony address. (Not my only gaff.) If you want to do business there you have to pay to play. Fortunately there was a television.

On the road your relationship with hotel/motel TV is very different than your own appliance. And you cannot recreate that relationship back home. In the last decade I have viewed more movies on airplanes & hotel rooms than in theaters.

I grew up watching TV. I have seen a few minutes of every television show produced in the USA since its invention. Therefore I love Japanese TV, although I have never for a minute had any idea what is going on. I have watched indecipherable quiz shows, Samurai soap operas & hardcore porn contests. I became so addicted that I have had a friend videotape programs so I can watch them over & over back in the USA. I watched a documentary on TV in Kyoto because it was in English (subtitled in Japanese). Eventually it became the template for my death row project years later.

Some consider it a bad habit but I turn on the television as soon as I check into my room in a new country. I may not understand the language but I familiarize myself with the rhythms & rhymes & get a better feeling for moods & energy outside.

Las Vegas
In different cultures we have to be more open minded. Staying at hotels in the middle of the action & under the guise of making a living I have heard knocks on my door at all hours of the night. In their defense, the “working girls” were not aggressive if you tell them you have no need for their services. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

However hotel rooms are made for sex. I cannot count the number of times I have returned to my room & been “serenaded” by a couple “getting it on” against the wall next to my headboard. The squeaking bed springs, squealing utterances & guttural expletives have kept me awake for hours. It seemed bad form to call down to the front desk & interrupt their reverie.

On the other hand housekeeping & chambermaids have a game they play. After they knock they use their pass keys to barge in. Several times I have been interrupted in flagrante by their disapproving eyes, startled harrumphs & muffled giggling. At the very least they have taught me to always engage that silly chain lock when I am inside.

Tokyo
Speaking of motion, I was awakened to blinding morning sunlight with my whole bed dancing. I was stunned but soon realized I was experiencing a major earthquake. Quickly reminiscences from grade school flooded back to mind instructing me to hide in the bathtub or exit to the street. I was buck naked & the Japanese are quite formal even in dire emergencies.

Most people I have observed, as soon as they book a trip, are only concerned with two things: hotels & restaurants. All the travel magazines, websites & blogs advertize & enumerate lists of “Best Ten Hotels…”, People’s Choice Restaurants…”, “Top International Resorts…”. Then they toss in places to shop to round out coverage. Motels, bed & breakfast inns & cruise ship berths are safe havens. Eating is necessary. And shopping is a familiar experience amidst the chaos & discomfort of a new place. Restful & relaxing, they have minimum impact on new experiences. The real world is outside, not inside.

Managua
For years during the civil wars in Central America I traveled down on Congressional CoDels. The first time I found myself in the Hotel Inter-Continental in Nicaragua I was stunned by the number of suspicious people lurking in the lobby. It turned out most of them were newspaper reporters, soldiers of fortune, government officials & spies. The place was infamous. And the scene at the bar resembled the one in the Star Wars movie. The news media had turned several of the upstairs bathrooms into darkrooms & suites into wire services. Despite risking my life, they paid me the royal sum of $15 for a fully developed black/white print when I got an exclusive.

The phones in our rooms were likely bugged. And I was asked a few times “Who are you working for?” & “Who are you traveling with?” I must admit I was intrigued by the attention as nefarious as its intentions might have been but I am sure it had more to do with the company I was keeping than me. I hid my cameras under the bed on the few instances where I did not take them with me. I was not so naïve as to think it would thwart any real “thief” but might slow down the “garden variety” types.

SIGNS FOUND IN HOTELS:
Bangkok
It is forbidden to enter a woman, even a foreigner, if dressed as a man.
Norway
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
Yugoslavia
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
Moscow
You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian & Soviet
composers, artists & writers are buried daily except Thursday.
Zurich
Because of impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the
bedroom, it is suggest that the lobby be used for this purpose.

Sri Aman
Not every accommodation falls to easy categorization. On one of my trips to Malaysia & after a very long dugout canoe ride along a jungle encroached river, the Iban tribe allowed us to live in their village. These indigenous people had been headhunters for most of their history. Baskets of shrunken skulls hung from the rafters of their famous longhouses as remnants of that era. When I returned a few seasons later, they were all gone in an attempt to placate the delicate sensibilities of Australian ecotourists.

There was little or no electricity & the tattooed locals performed traditional dances by candlelight. I ferreted my way along the path to the communal latrine guided only by my ubiquitous miniature flashlight. We slept in an ancient dormitory room under mosquito netting. To this day I am still not sure what I was lying on.

I am still recovering from an exchange I had somewhere in Borneo. I had sweaty palms & it seemed to last forever but ended with this: “Rune sirbees. Essquish mee peas. Ess korea, jew wan do scramah heys, klizbie beggon, tossy ingish moppin wib bodder una sigh an copy? Rye?” (TRANSLATION: Room service. Excuse me please. It’s correct, you want two scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, toasted English muffin with butter on the side & coffee? Right?) The conversation could have resulted in an international incident for all I know. And what I really wanted was pancakes.

You may not think you spend much time in your hotel room but it is a lot more than you think. I adapt to the décor & get used to the strangeness. I have slept on tatami mats, in love hotels, youth hostels, college gymnasiums & beneath the waterline on ocean crossing, tramp steamer ships. I always get an education & receive more than I take. But after they pick up their tip on the night table, I often wonder what the chambermaids think of a room left plastered with color-coded Post-It notes in calendar grid patterns all around the walls with dates for events in the area.

The strangest place? Once I was booked into room number Pi (3.14159265...). Since it had an infinite number of digits on the door, of course, I was way down at the end of the hall. (That joke may not be very funny to you but it kills at MIT.)

We’ll leave the light on for you.

Music’s Homage to Photography

2011-12-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

For most of its infancy & adolescence photography has been considered a "minor" art, an afterthought when measured against more traditional ones. But as civilization embraces its influence & contributions, we have seen how it has permeated into every crevice of societies.

Music, contemporary music, & photography have a natural affinity together. They are inseparable. Jazz, blues, rock/roll, hip hop legends have been deified by photographers chronicling its every movement, era, hero & anti-heroine.

Many troubadours & songwriters have repaid the favor by including the recently recognized art form in the lyrics & as topics of tunes. A whole genre has grown up around photo iconography without a note being played. But also the pictures are the subjects of the myth too.

Metropolis: 10 Traveled Cities

2011-11-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

All the time I am asked the question “What do you like to shoot?” It is a lot harder to answer than you might think. Ultimately, I have to admit I just like to expose film. Whereas some people specialize in landscapes, architecture, animals, flowers or still life, mostly I photograph people. And the best place to find large concentrations is cities—big cities—metropolis.

Speculation has it that the first city appeared around 3200BC. The largest settlement
in southern Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq), if not the world, was Uruk.

By definition metropolis is big. It dwarfs the individual. In cities there is an inherent tension between citizen & his community. People are fugitives of the economy, captives of their environments, props in a larger picture. None are immune to the physical & cultural influences of the city. So do we consume the city or does it consume us?

Metropolis is both horizontal & vertical. Today’s metropolises do not just have lateral directions; their addresses are also up & down. Sprawling for acres, compressing all forms of enclosures tightly together & at the same time rising straight up, stacking other enclosures up to be engulfed by clouds. Who exists at street level is far different from what is subterranean or floating high above in the skyscrapers. You are subjected to less & less light the lower you go. The higher you go the more promise you encounter. Interiors have their own artificial sources.

Metropolis (1927) directed by Fritz Lang

Metropolis is concentration of production (industrialization & finance) & consumption (markets & population). Work is one inescapable imperative: you either have it or you don’t. In big cities you profit if you have it, but mysteriously you can subsist without it. Labor & commodity coagulate. And possession has a lot to do with how high or low you exist in the highrise/underground hierarchy. Besides commerce & population, metropolises all have highways & jazz. But it all merges on the street.

I grew up in the inner city. I like the throngs of humanity. Rubbing shoulders with anonymous characters. I travel, seeking more & I delight in taking pictures of them. Now I recognize skylines in movies, advertisements & magazines on sight.

However, photography cannot “know” a city, only those parts where we stand. Smells, sounds and pulses may resonate in our thoughts or dreams but are made whole with our pictures, sometimes years later. By choice, invitation or commission I am asked to make visual art in new places. With only limited research I must form a quick impression. Because it remains only my personal view of the city, it is merely a trace of the effect the city had on me. No matter how ugly or beautiful I find the place, it has at least two faces: daytime & night. All cities change when the sun goes down.

Horrific lower depths of London, Paris & New York that inspired the great social movements of the 19th & 20th centuries, & the crusading zeal of novelists Charles Dickens & Victor Hugo & photographer Jacob Riis against the festering tenements, sweatshops, & child labor that blighted these cities, now are among the First World’s proudest metropolises.

Those who believe that there are no alternatives to the present proliferation of
metropolitan tissue perhaps overlook too easily the historic outcome of such a
concentration of urban power: they forget that this has repeatedly marked the
last stage in the classic cycle of civilization, before its complete disruption &
downfall.
-Lewis Mumford, The City in History

No one agrees on which cities are actually the largest. Where the edges & borders begin & end is a matter of conjecture. But most of the top 20 remain on everyone’s list.

In 1800, it is estimated that less than 3% of the world’s population called cities their home. A UN report recently revealed that for the first time in history more people live in cities than in rural areas.

Our relations with cities are like our relations with people. We love them, hate
them, or are indifferent towards them.
-Victor Burgin, Some Cities

Tokyo to some is the world's most populous city, some claim home to 36.7 million people. But today more than one-fifth of its population is over age 65, leading to increased strain on all sorts of systems: pensions, health-care and other facilities. After centuries of isolation, progress in Japan is a national mandate. Much of the population can adapt public policy quickly enough to change national direction seemingly at will. At the same time traditions, protocols & mores are diametrically different from Western, so much so that often Japanese correct is Western wrong, Eastern left is Western right.

Returning annually for years, I knew parts of Tokyo better than New York City. I could navigate its subway system faster than a taxi. Every tradition, comment and gesture had deep seeded meaning which thwarted my assimilation, but slowly understanding the culture probably taught me more about protocol than any class or system in my native land. I fell in love with Japan for its strangeness & for how much it nurtured my international education.

London, a commercial center since the Roman Empire, is now in the midst of another building project: preparing for the 2012 Summer Olympics and an estimated half-million visitors. London is one of the most sophisticated cities in the Western Hemisphere, but it harbors such an idiosyncratic subculture as to be humorous.

The recent riots have been such an anomaly for this decidedly first world model. Obviously there are deep seeded animosities amongst the “haves & have nots”.

My first visit to London was all fish & chips & Beefeaters palace guard. I was hitchhiking around Europe. Subsequent visits have revealed more of its quirkiness, but I have never been able to delve below the surface. I admire its diverse contributions to the world. The city works & thrives.

Moving amongst local citizens is easy but alien.

Paris is one of the world’s biggest tourist destinations. Celebrated for its art and architecture, its size, traffic & pollution problems threaten its image & lucrative tourism industry. The city fathers have consistently opted to position it as one of the leaders in art, design & innovation. They strive to make the city livable. The middle class considers itself politically involved even though the quality of life keeps them isolated from its underlying realities.

In my early visits to Paris I could only move amongst its demimonde. Race, economy & access were not nearly the obstacles as in other societies. At first I deluded myself into believing I could overcome the language barrier. That illusion was soon dispelled. But language has never prevented me from enjoying so much of what the city has to offer both in culture & people.

See my book Paris on BLURB and video on Vimeo

Mumbai (Bombay) is the most populous city in India & therefore one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of approximately 19 million. It is also the richest city in India & has the highest GDP in south, west or central Asia. It is the commercial & entertainment capital of India by hosting the stock exchange & the movie industry. At the same time the small wealthy & middle classes are dragging the other billion people into the twenty first century.

Mumbai has emerged as an economic leader after centuries of being subjugated by British rule & bone crushing population growth. Manpower & innovation have redirected the subcontinent. It is a country to be watched in the future with one of the most colorful histories & recent progressive policies.

This is a city divided vertically, horizontally, economically, historically, racially & spiritually. What you see in the highrises is very different from what you experience at ground level. “Underground” is even more alien. However, there are photographs on every level. Someone told me you could drop your camera & as it tumbled down the motordrive would randomly make art.

Everywhere is overwhelming. Millions of poor, middleclass & wealthy are right in your face & under your feet at every hour, day & night. Their resolve about their status or plight in life is conditioned by culture & religion & history. Therefore what we would perceive as burden is just accepted.

Saint Petersburg is the most European city in Russia. Built on the backs of serfs & slaves it has been a leader in & repository of cultural advances.

After a childhood distrusting the Russian society, Saint Petersburg was a tremendous surprise. The city embraced me (or rather just ignored me) in a way that allowed me to look, see, & perform my job in its most efficient way. I discovered that I could read Cyrillic, roam the streets & associate with the natives as easily as anywhere I have ever been.

The face of the city opened like a flower to the sun. It made good pictures just by force of existence. The center of the town is quite maintained. As you get closer to the edges it loses it polish very quickly, but that stands to reason for a metropolis trying to reinvent itself after centuries of subjugation by a myriad of governments.

See my book Saint Petersburg on BLURB & video on Vimeo

New York City is one of the most powerful metropolises on earth. A leader in both culture & commerce, the city has successfully figured out how to allow its millions of citizens to live on top of one another. Years of steady growth have made it a vibrant city. Its history is short when compared with others on the list, but that may be a blessing.

At the vanguard on many fronts, New York City takes that role seriously. Good & bad people from all over the world flock to take advantage of its potential. The best & worst end up here & give the town its flavor. The “city that never sleeps” consistently proves “if you can make it here you can make it anywhere” if you have an “empire state of mind”.

Over the years I have returned often to photograph different segments: Wall Street, Soho, Harlem, Jazz, sports, entertainment, politics, popular culture, etc. I have shot numerous jobs in the middle of Time Square and under the Brooklyn Bridge. While its problems seem so insurmountable it consistently rises from the ashes like the Phoenix.

Shanghai is a huge city that is changing so fast it may have lost its soul. China’s big cities steeped in thousands of years of tradition are busy destroying much of it in the name of progress. Shanghai is the economic powerhouse speeding to its future. One of the most distinctive skylines in the world, it has had more dramatic change in the last twenty years than in the previous 200. The youth & middle classes seem surprised when questioned about such rapid dismissal of ancient traditions & old elegance.

Wilting, humid heat made photography laborious. However the citizens were inviting, compliant & went out of their way to make it easy. I grew up being taught that the Chinese government has created a repressed society. You have to dig very deeply in this modern era to experience examples. It is there beneath the surface, but the image of today’s China is very different from a decade ago.

It is hard to contain that many people & social, interpersonal & political evolution is exciting to see.

Cairo is the capital of Egypt & the second largest city in the Muslim & Arab world & Africa. It suffers from high levels of pollution & traffic. Older than Cairo, the Nile is one of the most important rivers in the world. Its exploitation is the history of civilization. Nearby are the pyramids of Giza seen in every geography textbook & the ultimate adventurous tourist destination.

I had spent most of my life dreaming of visiting Egypt. Pharaohs, mummies and ankhs danced in my head for decades. When I finally got there, I plunged into the inner city with its souks, bazaars & markets with a vengeance. The sights, sounds, smells & noises were overwhelming. Throngs of merchants & shoppers pushed & pulled at every stall & storefront.

The City of the Dead was every bit as impressive as my anticipation.

Istanbul is the only metropolis in the world situated on two continents, Europe & Asia. Historically known as Byzantium & Constantinople, it is the largest city in Turkey. It has served as the capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire & the Ottoman Empire.

Its moderate approach to government & social dynamics has made it a leader in international politics. It is officially a secular state. It also has served as a go-between in Western/Middle East negotiations. And although daily life is mired in ancient traditions, its population largely reflects its contemporary outlook.

I especially remember the amplified songs that were calls to prayer from the mosques & their ubiquitous minarets. In the middle of the night they set off sequentially & each Imam’s voice competed for my attention, barely audible in the distance. Istanbul has too many layers to be revealed in a short time, maybe even in a lifetime.

Los Angeles is the City of Lights—the land of fantasy. It is a city based on excess, built on the backs of an emerging subculture that does not even speak the same language. Money seems to thrive in constant sunshine.

A sprawling horizontal metropolis, Los Angeles represents the fast growing metropolis of the future. Promising quick fortunes, people immigrate from all over the world dreaming of fame, good weather, fast cars & luxury.

Many large cities have their unique characters but LA exhibits one of the most unusual. Its success also produces extreme diversity, crippling traffic, pollution, overcrowding, disparity & estrangement. Its different neighborhoods are almost impenetrable by outsiders. Separated by race, wealth, ethnicity, profession & politics, real LA remains opaque to tourists & long time residents.

LA grows from American seeds & on uniquely American soil. An original. The people who move here do so because it is what they hope & imagine it to be. I have photographed LA for the last quarter century & still have no idea where I am or what I am seeing.

Guest Post:: Getting Started Giving Back

2011-10-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons many photographers pick up a camera is to expose social injustices and confront inequalities. Like Lewis Hine and Sebastião Salgado, we have a desire to raise awareness through imagery. It is a way to use our talents to give back.

To get involved, find a community organization like a youth center, food bank, church, temple, homeless shelter, arts foundation, environmental group. Research the organization, exploring questions like:

Why do organizations like it exist?
Does the organization address a local, national, or an international issue?
What are the organization’s positive effects?
Is there data to support it?
Who helps pay for their existence?
Private donors, Local, state or Federal funding?

Volunteer your time and familiarize yourself with their goals, motivations, members and recipients. You can attend functions, drives and fundraising events to rub shoulders with the right people. The more you understand the organization, the better you will be at documenting it.

After you have developed a relationship with the organization, offer your services. Before you photograph, look at previous documentary photographers for inspiration. Pay attention to things like composition and lighting, and how they turn uninteresting photographs into masterpieces by changing the angle, adding color or a hand. For modern photographs check out these three websites dedicated to social documentary -
Media Storm,
SocialDocumentary,
Blue Earth Alliance.

My opportunities come through my hometown church where I know many of the church elders, leaders and volunteers. For the past five years, the church has been involved with World Vision. By raising and donating funds to specific World Vision projects, my church has helped build homes in East Africa and the Dominican Republic, and a library, community center, and a six-mile irrigation system in the Dominican Republic. When the church was invited to travel to these locations to see the progress, I volunteered to photograph and capture audio and video. After a few trips, I have a large archive and a wealth of documentation. My church uses my images to raise more money and awareness for these projects and causes.

Members from the church organized an independent dental mission to the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. They saw my ability to document the World Vision projects, so invited me to accompany the group. For three days I documented an oral surgeon and her assistants, three nurses, and a physician treat almost 300 people who desperately needed dental attention.

I combined my photographs and interviews to create a documentary (See Below) which has been shown not only to the church, but to large audiences at sponsoring universities, companies and organizations to raise awareness and funds for the next trip. With more money and support, more people can be treated.

Most of us have a long way to go before we achieve what photojournalists like Kristen Ashburn have achieved. Do not let that deter you. Every contribution, no matter how big or small, counts.

Dental Mission 2011: Dominican Republic & Haiti from Leah Cornwell Raymond on Vimeo.

Leah Cornwell Raymond has been Lou Jones Studio's studio manager for four years. She is also an aspiring photographer and dedicated social documentarian, photographing the different facets of Boston and the surrounding areas, and traveling abroad with humanitarian missions. Moving forward she hopes to focus her attentions on philanthropic endeavors, assisting non-profit and NGO’s share their mission with the greater population. Website

All Photos Copyright Leah Cornwell Raymond

Highlight Thursdays: Best from the Web

2011-10-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

This week we have some great Behind the scenes videos, A creative spin on Pin-Up photography, and a stunning visual dance.

1) Light Painting a B-25 Bomber
Eric Curry composites partially lit photos to create these ultra realistic images.

Source (DIY)

2) Male Pin-Up Models
A new project by photographer Rion Sabean "Men-Ups" puts men in traditionally female poses raising the question of whether the poses were always unnatural looking or just with men.

3) Is Photojournalism Truthful?
Presentation of Photojournalism Behind the Scenes, an auto-critical photo essay showing the paradoxes of conflict-image production and considering the role of the photographer in the events.

Photojournalism Behind the Scenes [ITA-ENG subs] from Ruben Salvadori on Vimeo.
Source (ISO1200)

4) Behind the Scenes of a Free Climbing Video Shoot.
A BTS look at what goes into shooting Free climber Alex Honnold For a 60mins Piece.

Full 60Minutes Video
Source (PetaPixel)

5) Pendulum Waves

Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and (seemingly) random motion.

Highlight Thursdays: Best from the Web

2011-09-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

This week we have a few inspiring videos including Irwin Wongs humorous music video about Copyright infringement and Possible proof that Nickolas Cage is Immortal.

1) Pay Me feat. Irwin Wong
Not only is this a funny take on a real issue in the industry right now but its a viral marketing master piece. Picked up by several Photo blogs all leading back to Mr. Wongs own website.

2) Did you know the BOOK?
Bio Optical Organized Knowledge device is the latest Analog craze.

Okay, so I bought one but how do I patch it to the current version?

3) US Gov Sues The Art Institutes

Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice sued Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corporation, which is 41 percent owned by investment bank Goldman Sachs. The government has charged the company with fraudulently collecting $11 billion dollars in state and federal student financial aid between July of 2003 to June of 2011. EDMC allegedly collected $2.2 billion of that money in 2010 alone. That amounted to almost 90 percent of the company's 2010 revenues.

4) How Much Should You Charge?
Adorama TV presenting Mark Wallace explain the basics of setting your rates and Licensing fees.

5) Proof Nickolas Cage is Immortal?
I have a feeling he is.

The story here is that an Ebay seller apparently found this old carte-de-visite showing a Nicholas Cage lookalike—and reached what is surely the only reasonable explanation, which is that the photo proves Nicholas Cage is a vampire.

6) Salt

In his search for “somewhere I could point my camera into pure space,” award-winning photographer Murray Fredericks began making annual solo camping trips to remote Lake Eyre and its salt flats in South Australia.

SALT Doco Trailer from SALTdoco on Vimeo.

7) Photo Matters
This website explores the creative variables of photography, one at a time, to see how each works.

Long Exposure: Magic Blue and You

2011-09-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

With long exposure you can cure a lot of ills
Remove choppy water, eliminate people in a scene

At the extremes, beyond the pale, on the periphery, above the rim are where you find the best stuff.

Heaven/Hell

Hot/Cold

Mountain tops/ocean floors

War/Peace

Filene’s Basement

Middle of the road? Anybody can snap a picture at 1/250@f/8. That is a camera’s sweet spot. But what you capture way out on the ends, at ten seconds or at ten thousandth piques the senses.

Extremes

Right down the middle is average, safe—mediocre. At the edges shapes change, colors change, perceptions change, things shrink & grow. Once during a blackout engulfing most of Boston I made exposures of the city that lasted minutes—half an hour. Reciprocity went through the roof. On the resultant film, the black sky turned green, puffy clouds morphed into flimsy mist & there was a discernible flare.

Extremes, though contrary, have like effects. Extreme heat kills, &
so extreme cold; extreme love breeds satiety, & so extreme hatred;
& too violent rigor tempts chastity, as does too much license.
—George Chapman

On an assignment for the now defunct Polaroid, I had the honor of working with “Doc” Edgerton before he died. We shot a rifle bullet through an ordinary playing card. His mechanics froze the projectile & shock wave in mid flight. For both experiences—one too slow for the human eye & the other too fast—the resulting images stick in my mind for all the information they revealed.

“magic blue”

When I first started to bracket for elusive nighttime shots, the timed exposures turned the pictures cyan. I had no idea what to expect until I developed the film. Cameras, film & light meters were not designed to handle beyond certain limits. I crossed my fingers. “The proof is in the proofs.” I had no inkling but that is how I eventually discovered “magic blue”—a mistake that I capitalized on by pushing the technology to the extreme.

On Kodachrome film, the combination of reciprocity failure & the preponderance of ultraviolet light waves in the atmosphere at dusk gave the images a “day-for-night” appearance. Under the right conditions city lights become bright & dramatic, the shadows hide the ugly details & the sky acquires a saturated blue. At normal latitudes the window for this special light is only about twenty to thirty-five minutes. So you have to be in place & prepared to take maximum advantage but it is well worth the effort.

In taking pictures the more we know about light the less we need of it.

I have a friend in Ohio who claims that he can make precise light meter measurements of a sunset to ensure optimum colors but I am skeptical. In the old days I used to bracket like crazy. Today we have the luxury of the LCD.

Long exposures require a Zen-like attitude. Our greatest personal asset is patience. To master “magic blue” you wait forever for a very short span of time. Not knowing the territory, you maybe get to many locations early & wait. Many anxious hours have been spent anticipating the right conditions, the right light & hoping everything would work. Now we can also rely on HDR.

Intangibles

To discover the essence of long exposure on your own means to stack up years of experimentation, thousands of hours collectively waiting for the right moments & hundreds of failures. Millions of frequent flyer miles, early dawns, late nights. My journey has been exquisite but daunting. I am not sure I would do it again.

Many spend time accurately documenting earth, air, fire & water. But to utilize long exposure is to go beyond, to dig down deeper into a mechanical bag of tricks available to the photographer who makes an attempt to reproduce the intangibles between subject & him/herself…to capture the invisible. When we extend the time frame, we introduce another dimension.
artifacts

In a photograph long exposure is often invisible to the naked eye & almost impossible to detect. But time leaves artifacts. Normal shutter speeds record the expected—reality, as it were. Lengthening time “paints” another “wash” over the façade of the photograph & marries art & science. For example if we capture cascading waterfalls with an extended exposure, we are recording something that our naked eye never actually sees. Therefore it begs the question, “Is it real or is it art?”

The “accumulation” of light subtly “bedazzles” a picture, somewhat like a young girl’s hobby craft. Light leaves hints: streaks from automobile tail lights, trails from body movement, paths of stars, ghosts of another period. And the original photograph is no longer placid.

    A snapshot steals life that it cannot return. A long exposure creates
    a form that never existed.
                        -Dieter Appelt

Blur

Ultimately we are still photographers. Our cameras freeze moments before turning them into history. But the world is in constant motion. Everything moves. To represent this is sometimes our mission. One technique is to utilized blur. It gives a still photograph a somewhat cinematic effect. It isolates things that you want to illustrate. Makes them stand out, not only visually but psychologically. Blur cannot be controlled but with practice we can learn to anticipate its cause.

Every photography textbook describes how to use longer exposures to add some blur to an otherwise dull picture or how to pan with a moving subject to obliterate the background. They also teach you the complicated metering you have to master. But today’s digital cameras are capable of making perfectly exposed pictures by just switching the camera to automatic. A camera does not care if you are too stupid to hold it steady. Consequently you can concentrate on composition & “following through” with the sweeping movement. It is a matter of shutter speed & choreography. Also learn to use your ears. You can hear how long the shutter remains open & discern how much blur is appropriate in that time limit. You can make small adjustments to the exposure but the electronics will make a proper exposure even as you move in & out of light & shade. However you might want to turn off that image stabilization apparatus.

Sports are especially enhanced by blur. Athletics are so balletic & graceful that they absorb it willingly. Even things that do not normally remind us of motion can also be subjects. Freeze a landscape with a tripod but long exposures let the wind rustle the foliage & alter how we experience forests. Fuzzy leaves.

Mechanics

To manage long exposures you often need a whole bunch of extra equipment. In this case the photographer’s best friend is his/her tripod. It keeps everything steady & loyal for as long as you require & does not ask for compensation. The tripod’s companion is a good cable release. Sometimes you can get away with a little body tremor with short lenses but, as soon as you stick that long lens on, you excite all sorts of random vibrations.

I also carry a mono-pod everywhere. It does not replace a tripod but eliminates one degree-of-freedom & helps me gain as much as two extra stops slower shutter speed.
In the absence of a tripod I use a wall or a tree. But the best makeshift camera support is my camera bag. I can throw it down anywhere & its soft, malleable exterior acts as a beanbag & cushions my camera excellently. The added benefit is I always have it with me.

Ours is a solar profession. We resemble sun worshipers. But it is hard to get longer shutter speeds when shooting in broad daylight. Even with the lowest ISO settings, the longest speed possible may not be adequate to slow you down. That is when I pile on the Polarizing filters. In a perfect world it would be optimum to have different neutral density filters but they are heavy, bulky, expensive & have a single purpose. Polarizers are designed for another problem but act as an excellent substitute.

World’s Longest Exposure

When you get the hang of it you may want to experiment with “double bracketing”: 1) vary the f/stop around the speed of the action 2) vary the exposure with the shutter. The mood & rhythm change with each new variation. Subsequently you are exploring a new kind of art: photography that integrates both movement & elapsing time for special effect.

I often mix strobe with available light. The flash etches a sharp image &, at the same time, continuous light produces some form of smear that is unpredictable. In this form light is a variable that is hard to corral &, as stated before, impossible to control.

To integrate strobe with continuous light is a juggling act. The results are unique but the calculations can be complicated. Speedlights make this much simpler. By using one of the automatic settings (aperture priority, shutter priority or programmed mode), the camera can maintain perfect exposure every time. It takes a bit of practice to understand why this is happening but, again, composition is all you should be concentrating on.

Magic

To elongate time is the “photographer’s exclusive moment”. Not instantaneous but not quite eternal. With slow exposures we are armed with a tool for abstraction. We can experiment with motion. It is a characteristic unique to photography.

As we become more knowledgeable we expect photography to do more than what is inherent. Not just to document but to explore new vistas while preserving old memories. We expect it to perform herculean feats. Fortunately it has always risen to the task. It exceeds all my expectations. I no longer visit a place to see what other people seek. I come to see ONLY what others don’t. I come for things that may not exist. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it remains elusive. I am not afraid of that. “They also serve who only stand & wait.”

Collecting Photographers: Yousuf Karsh

2011-08-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

After so many years it is hard to remember the names of all your clients but certain ones stand out, not because of who they are but for some other interesting circumstance. It is hard to know sometimes how you get a job. Who hired you? Where did they get your name? But the phone rang one day & we negotiated to photograph at the Kidney Foundation’s annual banquet. It was kismet.

On assignment I set up in an anteroom to take portraits of dozens of board members, donors, honorees & their wives/husbands. The pictures were for the annual report & as gifts for everyone who paid big money to attend the fundraiser. My assistant & I set up seamless paper & large studio lighting & were ready for any contingency. My client escorted individuals & couples in one by one. I chitchatted with my subjects briefly & posed each group uniquely.

Dressed in tuxedos & gowns people just poured in &, as the sessions backed up, after a while it became monotonous. Then to accommodate everyone, my client started to form larger groups which led to a bit of confusion. Now these were some of the most important people in philanthropy: doctors, lawyers, captains of industry, socialites, a veritable Who’s Who of the American social scene. As I was introduced most of the titles were lost on me. I treated everyone equally.

But then I noticed, off to the side, one little man. He was most unassuming but he looked vaguely familiar. I discretely inquired as to who he was. The dowager who answered whispered he was Yousuf Karsh.

The story of how this diminutive photographer ripped the cigar out of the mouth of England’s Winston Churchill, in order to get the stern portrait of the famous Prime Minister, has become legend in our profession. From his studio in Ottawa, Canada, he hosted some of the most famous people in the world & joined that list himself.

Most of the evening, I had been totally oblivious to everyone’s stature. But face to face with one of my heroes my palms began to sweat. Karsh’s keen eye noticed that I was now nonplussed. He assured me that I was still capable of taking the picture. Afterwards we talked a short while but I had to get back to work. Although we never spent any more time together, because of that day, Mister Karsh was a mentor. He was to a generation of portrait photographers. Photography can work that way.

Push Pins: Remnants of a Photographers Journey

2011-08-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Reminiscent of the gothic novel Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, downstairs in my photography studio, instead of a painting I harbor a world map. Like the book’s protagonist I treat it with great reverence. Over time & with every new escapade it changes, ie I scar it with another pushpin. There are dozens. Almost every inch of landmass is covered. Only the oceans are vacant. My memories substitutes pushpins for the adventure.

However, long after the trips, when I casually glance at the map, each placement seems so insignificant. Although they are labor intensive, each single thumb tack gets lost amidst the sea of others. So small an item belies the fact that each pushpin represents a complex chapter in my life. Underneath most pins exists a new language or dialect. Each one casts shadows on all manner of human experience.

It seems so insufficient to reduce years of research & turmoil treading so much real estate while crossing foreign frontiers. The pins diagonally intersect perpendicular latitudes & longitudes. Each spot has put huge dents in my psyche & physique & pocketbook & I am quite sure my presence has put huge divots in the landscape itself.

In the beginning when I started traveling there was no scheme or blueprint. What eventually happened was random. The first few journeys were educational but after time patterns emerged. And a pattern is the skeleton of a story. Stories of startling scope. Each round headed pin stands for multiple truths but hides them beneath their points. They are colorcoded: each green one represents one of the thirteen Summer & Winter Olympic Games I have covered, white ones signify a forgotten corporate assignment & the red ones are favorites. They form a Picasso-like mosaic view of our globe.

All but two US states are pricked. Every major city in North America has a stainless steel needle through its center as well as nearly every secondary town. Each continent (except Antarctica) has been marked. It has taken over thirty years of planes, trains & automobile transportation. I have worn out cows of shoe leather. So much time has passed that some of the countries I have traversed have changed their names. For some reason pushing the pin in is the longest journey.

In 1900 Edwin Moore made the first pushpins—a pin with a handle. He was working at a photo lab & was missing a simple way to hang up film to dry. His first sale was one gross (a dozen dozen) for $2.00. His first “big deal” was a sale for $1000 to EASTMAN KODAK. Today his legacy encompasses all shapes & sizes.

Everywhere there are bulletin boards—somewhere. At the community center, college dorms, laundromats, grocery stores. Photocopied sheets, 3”x5” index cards, photos, business cards, tacks, tape, pushpins—the modern equivalent of the town crier. Typing-paper flags with local phone numbers dangling vertically, some missing like bad dental work. People love to post things. In their small way they are advertising: used cars for sale, tracking down lost pets, club meetings, items stolen, items needed, services bought & sought.

People who use pushpins do so for various reasons: for geography, for business, for education, as hardware, for art. But some entrust pushpins with the simple task of affixing one object against another. With such a simple tool, we overlook reliance on gravity & friction. Besides that the usual cliché is for mapping, cartography & indexing. Also geology & crime investigation use pushpins for their third & fourth dimensions. Depth, patterns & randomness can be surmised by color & aggregate clustering. Virtual pushpins have been dragged into the twenty-first century by complex software that digitally enhances visualization.

Upstairs in the studio behind all the blinking computer screens, the aggregate of pushpins is a metaphor for a million slides & negatives (& now gigabytes more pixels). File drawers of photographs “contain” over a million frequent flyer miles. At a glance they remind you of the storm of adventures. At one point in history, tacks jutting from corkboard were state-of-the-art—but it is now old technology. Three dimensional geography. However the visual effect continues to be the way we think.

Push Pin Studios is the graphic design & illustration studio formed
in New York City by legendary designers Milton Glaser & Seymour
Chwast.

A client once saw the file cabinets full of photographs & grieved that I had not kept a diary over the years, implying that words were more important. For weeks I was depressed by my oversight. But I soon remembered what I had was more precious—photographs of every place I had ever been—visible proof. (A few years later I realized I had also religiously maintained notebooks dating back to 1974.)

I tell clients & students that when you start your career as a photographer all you need is a camera & a little courage. Everything else is an accessory. But within a few years, if you are lucky, you realize the fallacy. Not only are you responsible for documenting the world unseen by most but you are responsible for preserving your workproduct. Where do you store all your output? When we moved recently we made an inventory of almost 500 exhibition prints. The frames alone are worth a fortune.

Eric Daigh, the Picasso of pushpins, employs thousands of pins to make
large scale portraits

When we look back the most important byproduct is the memories. Pushpins do not discriminate between good & bad experiences, friends or enemies. But after a while they form clusters making apparent trends not in evidence at the beginning. Then they grow vague & cloudy over the ages. The memories more like fantasies, the stories more apocryphal, the impression more universal.

Video: Speedlights Manual vs Automatic

2011-07-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Here at the studio we have started venturing into Video. Armed with new HD DSLR's we have decided to create short tutorials for you our audience. First is a series based on Speedlight use that is a sort of companion set to the book Speedlights & speedlites. We will also be shooting Behind the Scenes videos from time to time so check the video section on the right sidebar for new uploads or subscribe to our Vimeo and Youtube channels.

Each new video we produce we learn how to improve the process and bring you better content. We hope you will join us and please comment on what you have found helpful, where we can improve and what you would like to see us cover in the future.

So here is the newest Video Manual vs Automatic

One in a series of helpful online tutorials about the use of speedlights. In this video Lou Jones deals with the controversy between manual and automatic usage.

Speedlights: Manual vs Automatic from Lou Jones on Vimeo.

Lou Jones Studio's First Twitter Contest: Get on Bored!

2011-07-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Contest Has Finished

We have reached a milestone in our Twitter followers so to celebrate and thank all of you we decided to give away a bunch of Swag. Using the new technologies to reach out to an entirely new audience & pay homage to old supporters we have collaborated with Lowepro to institute a Twitter Contest. With very little effort on your part Lou Jones Studio will make your equipment arsenal and/or library larger.

What You Win

Grand Prize

Lowepro
Pro Roller Attaché x50

The Pro Roller™ Attaché x50 is a compact and modular solution for hassle-free international travel and work. Its inventive, two-bags-in-one design offers true versatility for the pro photographer. Use as a rolling attaché with your complete camera kit and laptop. More details Here

&

Final Exposure

Portraits from Death Row

Giving himself the provocative task of capturing the candid expressions of death row inmates, Jones has used the power of his camera to present these inmates as real people and not just the dark side of humanity. His book, Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row chronicles his six-year odyssey documenting these men and women incarcerated in the U.S. More info Here

First Prize

Speedlights & Speedlites

Creative Flash Photography at Lightspeed

This book seeks to inform all photographers about the smallest but most important advancement in photo lighting to date: Speedlights. Spearheaded by the digital revolution, lighting has acquired an entirely different set of rules which will be discussed in detail. More info Here

Second Prize

Final Exposure

Portraits from Death Row

Two Honorable Mentions
Will receive a copy of Lou's new Chap Book entitled "Paris"

Contest Has Finished

How To Enter

Its as simple as 1 2 3...

1. Follow @LouJones2008 on twitter.
2. Retweet:

Just entered to win a Lowepro Pro Roller Attaché, Speedlight&Speedlites book Follow @loujones2008 and Retweet http://bit.ly/nR3fGd #loujones

(click to Retweet this)

3: Or create a Custom Tweet telling us what you'll do with the Prizes when you Win. Just Include these Three things so we can track your entry.

1. @LouJones2008
2. #loujones
3. http://bit.ly/nR3fGd

Picking The Winners
We will be using Twitrand to choose the 5 winners randomly for the Twitter contest.We will be tracking the username “@LouJones2008” and Hashtag “#loujones”. The Twitter contest will start Thursday July 7th and run till the end of Monday July 18th. We will choose the 5 winners on Tuesday the 19th and announce them through Twitter.

The Small Print

Contest Description and Period:
The Fotojonesblog Twitter Contest (the “Contest”) begins July 7th 2011 at 4:00PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) and ends July 18th, 2011 at 11:59PM EST (the "Contest Period"). The Contest is one in which a participant Follows @LouJones2008 and Retweets the required details within the above mentioned Contest Period. All winners will be picked at random by a Lou Jones Studio employee using TwitRand.
Who is Eligible:
The contest is only open to persons, 18 years or older at the time of entry who do not reside in an area where such contests are prohibited by law and who have a Twitter account. Employees and agents of Lou Jones Studio and family members of such employees are not eligible to enter.
How To Enter:
1. Follow @LouJones2008 on twitter.
2. Retweet:

Just entered to win a Lowepro Pro Roller Attaché, Speedlight&Speedlites book Follow @loujones2008 and Retweet http://bit.ly/muNgHr #loujones

3: Or create a Custom Tweet telling us what you'll do with the Prizes when you Win. Just Include these Three things so we can track your entry.
1. @LouJones2008
2. #loujones
3. http://bit.ly/nR3fGd
All prize information, including prize value, is listed with the Contest announcement found here. All taxes, duties, fees and any other costs related to the prize not specifically stated within these Official Rules are the sole responsibility of the winner.

Contest Has Finished

Switching from Feedburner to AWeber for my email newsletter

2011-06-30T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is just a brief post to let my readers know that I’m switching from Feedburner Email’s service to AWeber to handle sending out my posts and other content via email. Why am I switching? Because AWeber offers countless features that we plan to use to better inform you our readers of the exciting new things we've been working on . This change will only affect email subscribers. My RSS Feed will still be handled by Feedburner.
With Feedburner’s email service for example, I have no control over the emails that are sent out. With AWeber I’ll be able to create a newsletter service that not only sends out the posts I publish on this blog, but it will also allow me to send out custom written emails. Emails with exclusive offers, dates for upcoming Workshops and info on new books we are working on.
If you currently subscribe to my email newsletter via Feedburner you’re subscription will automatically be imported to AWeber and you will receive an email asking you to confirm the subscription. Unless you click on the activation link in that email, you will not be added to the new newsletter service. This is because the new newsletter has a double opt-in confirmation feature enabled. Starting tomorrow Feedburner’s email service will be disabled, as AWeber steps in to take over.
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31 Street Photography Tips and Tricks: Part 2

2011-06-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

To read Part one of this series go Here...

"I only know how to approach a place by walking. For what does a street photographer do but walk & watch & wait & talk, & then watch & wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner."
--Alex Webb

16. Wear dark or bland clothes

Avoid looking like what popular culture thinks a “photographer” should look like with those weird khaki hats & fishing vests & parachute pants. Also do not be seduced by tourist garb. No bright colors. No logos. Buy nondescript clothing with camouflage, not fashion, in mind: earth tones or grays. Pay attention to what the locals consider appropriate.

It is often debated but you can never really look like a native. Adapting local costumes
does not work. But what really goes unnoticed changes with the environment.
Whatever you decide clothing that announces your origins should be left at home.

17. Smile
If you encounter reticence or hostility—smile. It works.

18. Show back of camera
Because of new technology, in tense situations you can share what you are doing with recalcitrant subjects by showing them the LCD. Often you allay their fears & make them a coconspirator. Choose your moments though, it does not always work.

In the overcrowded markets in Mumbai most people had no problem with me
photographing. But once in a while someone would give me the famous Indian
“head waggle”. Since we were in such close quarters begrudgingly I showed a
couple of people their image on the LCD. I was on display. Everyone saw me
doing it & it was easier as I moved around to shoot others.

19. Never make eye contact
You can stand right next to a subject & photograph them if you never make eye contact. Look past them, the other way, at the back of your camera, as if they are not even there.

20. Be brave
Never let them see you sweat. Fear is the biggest obstacle to getting good people photographs. Imposing on people you do not know, exposing yourself to rejection & ridicule is daunting. Give yourself permission to take pictures in all situations. You should never be obnoxious but you have to push past your trepidations. With time you will realize this is your responsibility.

21. Use your ears
You can become so involved in what you are doing that you lose track of other things around you but your ears are capable of hearing things that you do not see. Listen. Also when your attention is so intensely elsewhere you are vulnerable. You can hear negative forces around you. It is your security system.

22. Grow eyes in the back of your head
For your own safety you need to quickly develop “street smarts” so that you don’t get into trouble. Know your surroundings. In some cultures it is easy to take pictures. In others it is forbidden. Trust your instincts if the situation seems dangerous. If you must, travel with a companion who watches your back.

23. Know your limitations
It is only natural to get excited in a strange new place. Adrenalin kicks in. Therefore you can easily overdo it. Get in shape. Watch your step. Pace yourself.

Depending on the location I will design an exercise routine in preparation for it. The
bigger the rigors expected, the longer I train. Hot, cold, stamina, food are all elements
to be considered. You last longer.

24. Look the other way
When you are concentrating so hard on something you get tunnel vision. When the crowd’s attention is focused in one direction, don’t forget to turn 180⁰ around. Look behind you. The best pictures are often behind you & everyone else.

25. Embrace accident
There is no rhyme or reason to what will make a good street picture. Unlike all other art forms photographers make magic out of chaos. If you start with no preconceptions, your mind will be free to embrace new ideas. Reality can compete with your imagination if you open up to it.

26. Live in the moment
Embrace the situation. Understand the privilege of being in a rich or poor neighborhood. Absorb the feelings & smells & rhythms of the environment. Channel wherever you are, whatever you are seeing.

27. There is a photograph in every situation
Around each corner you will find the mysterious, abstract or photogenic. There are photographs everywhere. Whether local or foreign, it is your job to separate the wheat from the chaff & find them. The better photographers will move, adjust, add & subtract with their lens to perfect the composition but it is there. Concentrate.

28. Change the rules
Be proactive & develop your own aesthetic. Juxtaposition, accident, background can be rearranged in ways no one has seen before. Composition & content have classic traditions in art but photography is the best platform for change. Toss the rule book out. Who says street photography has to be black/white? It doesn’t even have to be on the street. Invent. Reinvent.

29. You cannot be all things to all people
Every country, neighborhood has a different personality. The protocol in every culture is different & you must strive to learn to accommodate each one in its own way. But you need to develop your own way, your own style that is compatible with alien agendas.

30. Language is no obstacle
When not sharing a language you have to find more effective ways to communicate. Learn to anticipate what is expected of you in social situations even if you do not understand so you are making enlightened responses. Besides photographers rarely have to talk anyway.

31. If it’s not working, move on
Time is precious. Don’t waste it. If you are waiting too long & nothing is happening, go to the next location. Don’t try to force a bad situation.

WHEN NOT TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH
There are times when taking a photograph is tenuous or uncalled for. In certain mosques, civic buildings & museums, etiquette is understood. In other situations it may not be obvious.

With my assistant driving us back to the studio after an assignment I yelled for him to
pull over. There was an amazing scene outside an elementary school with brand new
white snow against black wrought iron fence & kids running around in the playground behind. I jumped out of the car, loaded a roll of film & started shooting. Within minutes the only other car on the road pulled over & a small, older woman got out & told me to stop. I continued. She came closer & told me I could not shoot the school. I reminded her we were not in communist Russia & I could shoot anything I liked. She informed me she was a nun at the school & she would call the police. I reached in my pocket, pulled out a business card & said “be my guest.” She grabbed my camera. A week later I got a phone call from Mother Superior. I told her my camera got a photograph of her teacher assaulting me.

1. where it is strictly forbidden &/or there are signs posted
2. it is not worth the hassle
3. when you are likely to aggravate a volatile situation
4. when you are outnumbered

31 Street Photography Tips and Tricks: Part 1

2011-05-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

When my father was alive he used to tell me the hardest feat in sports was to hit a 95mph fastball. I am not sure I agree but it certainly takes an immense amount of coordination. The equivalent feat in art might be street photography; more difficult than painting, writing, dancing, even music. Anyone can hit a single once in a while but it requires combining a lot of skills & techniques to “hit” for average as well as home-runs.

Photographing strangers is a challenging undertaking. Being confronted with the moral dilemma of “stealing” a picture of someone without their permission or to engage them, alter the reality &, therefore, lose all veracity, is comparable to juggling several balls in the air. At the same time trying to fashion a reasonable but provocative image, is almost existential.

"Street photography is an age-old tradition, and also a solitary undertaking. It has been elevated by such luminaries as Robert Frank, Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander.
Street photography is an active, confrontational art form where the objective is to see and react to life around you. It is ground zero. No rules".

Street photos are small, quixotic segments of a larger urban landscape. They are bits of a city—metaphors. You are developing small narratives with little beginning or end. Equipment is usually minimal. Rather it is the heart & mind behind the camera that makes compelling street photographs. Traditionally we have seen examples by Robert Frank, Eugene Atget, and Andre Kertesz but a new wave is represented by Alex Webb, Martin Parr & Constantine Manos who have changed it forever.

The most adept have so many things to consider every time they point their cameras at something. As said before it is like juggling. Besides shutter speed & aperture, you are balancing light, composition, momentum, emotion, etc. And as you get better you add more balls.

In many places there is a de facto “war on street photography”. There is a lot more pressure on us. It is a wonderful tradition but suspicious minds attach some kind of perversion to it. So as practitioners we have to be more capable to deal with all these factors.

31 Tips And Technique for Street Photography

1. Observe
This may seem like an obvious thing but good street photographers are students of human behavior & body language. They window the exceptional from the ordinary & document it. They see through the fog of ordinary life. Pay attention & see differently.

2. Work Fast
With people around, you have about three seconds before you are detected & everything you see changes. That is an eternity. Learn to act quickly & decisively.

When you move through a crowd at a marketplace or a church or political rally, the “shockwave” of people’s awareness of your presence precedes you. Your greatest ally is the confusion that you can hide behind. Your biggest enemy is everyone warning everyone that you are approaching. They think it is funny. You have to be quicker than they are.

3. Be Prepared
Like the Boy Scout motto—be ready. If you get distracted you miss opportunities. Life can be fleeting. Photographs—more so.

4. Know Your Equipment
The corollary to working fast & being prepared is to have such a good working knowledge of the dials & controls so you are not fumbling around wasting time. The motion of bringing a camera to your eye, aiming, focusing & composing should be second nature. It is Zen-like.

5. Use Automatic
Since things change so quickly you are allowed to use automatic exposure to speed up your process. Especially in changing light, use programmed mode or another automatic mode so you don’t have to waste time with a light meter. Simplify.

Despite the fact that you are taught that “real photographers” make manual changes to exposure, there is nothing macho or sacrosanct about it. Utilizing all the conveniences afforded you by expensive cameras makes your job easier & faster.

6. Take It Now
So often we pass up photographs because we think we will return later to take the shot. Seize the opportunity. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle dictates that something will change as soon as you observe it. People will move, light will fade, a truck will drive between you & subject. They may knock down the building if you wait too long.

7. Learn To Anticipate
This is similar to backgrounds but more complex. The meaning may depend on divergent elements being in close proximity. Combining anomalies in the same frame can be humorous, ironic or just odd. If you think something picture-worthy is about to unfold, try to get in front of the action both in time & physically. I have often wondered, when you see photographs in National Geographic of climbers cresting a mountain, why is it always from the vantage point of the photographer shooting down as the others are still coming to the top? Try to determine how & where an event will evolve & be ahead of it when it does.

8. Move Slowly
This may seem the opposite of work fast but you can be efficient in your movements so as not to make people nervous. No herky jerky motions. That draws attention & is scary in unfamiliar circumstances. Be unobtrusive. Keep your elbows in. You can almost become invisible if you work at it hard enough. If you are doing it right subjects will look right through you.

On one of my CODELs to Nicaragua I documented a high level meeting with US Congressmen & Daniel Ortega, then president of the country. I skulked around for hours. I was inches from everyone in the room. That night one of the politicians asked me if I had been there.

9. Go To The Light
In real life lighting is bad. At least not ideal. In contrasty situations, expose for the bright light. If possible shoot from the shady side of the street into the sunny side. You are hidden, less obvious & your pictures have more drama. So even if there is only a small piece of light, find it.

10. Get Close
Don’t expect effective street shooting if you rely solely on a telephoto lens for sneaking pictures. Have your wide angle at the ready & interact. Robert Capa, the famous war photographer, said “If your pictures are not good enough, you’re not close enough.”

11. Find Gatherings
Seek out crowds. You have greater chance of finding interactions where there are more people: fairs, rallies, celebrations, parades. People are less self conscious & personal space goes out the window.

12. Be Conscious Of Backgrounds
You can elevate a good photograph to great if you maneuver yourself into position that includes a better background. The background can be as important as the primary focus. It adds context. It adds scale. In street photography bad backgrounds are just average portraits.
Roxbury mural with woman & man walking by)

13. Lines Don’t Have To Be Straight
In street photography content supercedes everything else. No need to have things straight in the frame. In fact Dutch angle can add psychological tension. But more importantly you have a chance to improve composition. By tilting the camera you emphasize important things &/or exclude distracting objects. “Getting it wrong” may lead to additional revelations.

14. Revisit Good Locations Or Events
Return to interesting places during better weather or more opportune times. Although spontaneity is a major factor, you may be able to combine background, juxtaposition, etc. in more familiar surroundings.

15. Find A Good Location And Wait
When you discover a special place, wait for something to happen or someone to come along & enhance the composition. Be patient.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 with even more Tips on Street Photography.

*Updated* Check out Part 2 of the series Here...

Stock Photography And The New Getty Images Contract

2011-05-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Back in the 1980s I traveled down to New York City & met with THE IMAGE BANK. Although stock photography had been around a long time, this new iteration revolutionized photography forever. From what had previously been outtakes, the new idea was to combine the best photographers, the best photography & the best marketing. It treated good photography with respect & I wanted some of that. A new era was born.

I traveled the world shooting assignments & “in my spare time” I submitted pictures to Image Bank. Eventually the checks became substantial. Our relationship matured. I visited the offices of Image Bank’s subcontractors all over the world. They helped me find assistants in Brazil, Japan, Austria, Korea. In other cities, they advised me about local customs & protocol. For awhile TIB positive blood flowed through my veins. And together we split the proceeds 50/50.

The model was so successful that Image Bank was sold—twice. And then things changed. The bean counters got involved & realized they did not need photographers anymore. Photography was so abundant it became a commodity. Shrewd business managers analyzed how important photography was to communications, design & new technologies & they marginalized the creators, artist & content providers because acquiring imagery had become so much easier.

Image Bank became Getty Images. With competition from so many other companies who emerged to better fulfill the voracious appetite for photography, prices started to plummet. Then new paradigms arose to replace the original methods. Royalty free, microstock, Flickr, free crept into the lexicon & heralded a sea change in the industry.

These “new ways” to “sell” stock gave all skill levels of photographers the opportunity to enter the marketplace, which was democratic, but it destabilized that very same marketplace. Clients & end users took advantage of our lack of cohesion & unity. Divide & conquer.

The contracts from traditional stock agencies have eroded for years. What began as an even split, ie photographers handle the creative half & agencies manage the business half, now has the lion’s share going to the stock agencies & its subsidiaries. The photographer is almost irrelevant. Years ago I refused to sign that first wave of nonequal share contracts & all but my best selling images were sent back to me.

Recently the AMERICAN SOCIETY of MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHERS (Article Link) & the ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHERS of AMERICAN (Article Link) have both negotiated with GETTY IMAGES about these inequities to no avail. Twitter, FACEBOOK are abuzz with responses to Getty’s new efforts to control market share while sacrificing any input from the talent.

Online the controversy rages on. Likely that is as far as the argument will get. Photographers will capitulate once again. We have in two generations killed the “goose that laid the golden eggs.”

Local News Shows Boston Street Photographers as Perverts

2011-04-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

They tell me timing is everything. I was writing a blog about street photography when WBZ-TV(CBS Affiliate) did a piece on the eleven o'clock news about photographers in downtown Boston. I could not believe my eyes & ears. They did an entire piece on male photographers taking pictures in Downtown Crossing. They surreptitiously videotaped several men on an afternoon. They questioned a couple of them too. The station made no overt accusations. No one was breaking the law but they brought into question how creepy this practice seemed.

I was aghast. To me it was salacious "journalism", at best, & downright unconscionable, at worst. After 9/11 New York City tried to make it difficult for photographers to work in Manhattan. The mayor has had to retract many of those "rules" but police still harass photographers constantly, hiding behind those nonexistent laws. In London they passed legislation to prevent photography but have had to change their tune to some degree. Believe it or not it was tourists who they listened to. Even though these two democracies had to amend their policies, photographers have lost something in each case.

It is difficult enough to practice time-honored street photography in today's world. Invasion of privacy, perversion, child endangerment & just plain old paranoia make it hard in an urban environment. I've been shooting in Downtown Crossing for three decades & unleashing what I learn all over the world. Amazing photographers have preceded me for years. It is how history gets a glimpse of itself. So it is important that we stifle this negative connotation about photography.

Sick people can turn this into a bad thing from either side of the argument. But we do not need the news media--our comrades-in-arms--who sticks cameras & microphones into the faces of traumatized accident victims or films suicide jumpers to make up stories to sensationalize just for the evening news. Besides preaching the wrong sermon, they will turn around against an "angry populace" one day & we won't be there to help.

Here is the piece shown below (Click here for a link to the video)

One of the Photographers responded with a story and examples of his photography entitled " WBZ Crosses The Line"

The spot was heavily biased, and can serve as an excellent example of how news is created, how fact is distorted, and how WBZ got the story they set out to find. All by design. If this is what happens with a minor story about street photographers, imagine what happens with major news stories.

[...] Before I continue, consider this: a real predator would not have engaged the media to begin with. If we were truly part of a group that “aggressively hunts down women and children” we wouldn’t go to the same place almost daily. This is How-often-do-you-beat-your-wife? Journalism.