Wednesday May 26th, 2010
Each creative person goes to different places for inspiration, and I was impressed with Evan Sklar’s “source” for keeping things fresh: his iPhone. It’s interesting to see what this New York photographer, who’s shot for GQ, Martha Stewart Living, Target, Macy’s, etc., comes up with on his cell phone:
"Lamb"
Evan took these first three images with nothing but his iPhone and a tape measure. I asked him to tell me how/why he uses his phone to take pictures:
Iphone = iFun. It’s a tiny portable camera and lab in one. I make way too many pictures with my phone. I make pictures with it every day. Videos also. I have 1,739 pictures on it. I’ve had it for a year. There’s a kind of nice thing about using it which says that I know that this is just a kind of fun and silly one-off picture, not “serious” or “significant” enough to break out the “real” camera so using the phone is a way of having your cake and eating it too.
"Pigeon"
"Gull"
I certainly understand the “guilt” (obsession?) of not having a camera when you’re out doing groceries and see some unusual person/color scheme/quality of light that probably should be photographed. In essence, a camera phone can be almost be a therapeutic alternative to beating yourself up for not having brought your real camera.
"Mr. Sushi"
Sklar says that he’s also used his iPhone as a “sketch pad” for an idea, and has even returned to shoot something again with his “real” camera. The examples below are the original iPhone shot at left, then the professional version at right. Ironically, especially with the ice cream trucks, both takes look pretty good to me! Evan even uses the Photoshop app (I had no idea that existed) on his iPhone to make the occasional tweak.
And just to give you an idea of his commissioned work (not shot with his iPhone):
I guess this gives new meaning to the term, “phoning it in.”
- Neil Binkley
Monday May 3rd, 2010
Scott Suchman is one of our Washington, DC photographers and recently visited Wonderful Machine HQ for a tour and lunch. In reviewing Scott’s website before his visit, I was reminded of how refreshing it is to see a simple-to-use site like his, especially after viewing so many hundreds (thousands?) of websites that have confusing navigation and loading issues. Not this one:
I also think that most art buyers/creatives have less patience than me when flipping through images, so I’d keep that in mind if you’re a photographer considering the design of your own site. From my perspective, here are the things that I like about Scott’s site:
1) His images load quickly.
2) The navigation arrows are in the same place for each image, and I don’t have to re-orient my mouse each time:
3) The images are just large enough to get an idea of what he’s doing. Some people like them full-screen, but these give you plenty of info to be confident in the quality of his work.
4) You can link to the specific pages, if you want to share a good image with colleagues or clients. This URL links to the following image, and not just his homepage like some Flash sites:
5) And there’s not an overflow of navigational options:
Simple!
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A little more about Scott:
• Full disclosure: Scott did bring delicious cupcakes for us from Georgetown Cupcakes on his visit, but that in no way influenced this post.
• He’s found that, in recent years, NYC clients are hiring him more frequently rather than sending New York photographers down to DC and paying travel fees.
• He’s a foodie (no surprise) who loves to cook and travel. Good thing that’s what he shoots, too.
• He particularly enjoys shooting food culture, and following the story from farm to table. A few more examples from that:
-Neil Binklely
Friday March 26th, 2010
We’re excited to have Rachel Hulin join on as one of our New York photographers. If you’re not familiar, she’s also a popular, witty photography blogger and editor (A Photography Blog and The Photography Post). Her work has appeared in The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the International Center of Photography, the New York Photo Festival (which she also curated last year), and she’s also been a staffer at several magazines.
I asked Rachel a little more about her background:
NEIL BINKLEY: Reading your bio info has made me realize what a love affair you’ve had with photography, considering how many different areas you’ve been involved!
My impression is that you enjoy capturing the quiet and whimsical moments (skinny-dipping and water seem to be themes). And often from the perspective of a fly on the wall, as if the subject matter wasn’t quite aware of your lens. These seem like real moments in the otherwise unobserved life. Are these people from your personal life? And most importantly: where can I get a cool globe like that?
RACHEL HULIN: You’re right that I like to photograph moments from my own life; I generally have a camera with me whenever I’m at a family function or away for a weekend with friends, and sort of lie in wait for a moment to capture. There are beautiful and unexpected things happening all the time and I like to try to record some of them. It’s funny how these have sort of created a diary for me now; there’s my roommate in my very first apartment in New York, there’s my mom in the hot tub when she was just getting hair back after chemo.
And YES, I love water! So there’s always lots of that.
The Globe is a favorite of mine; it sits in my old bedroom at my parents house, and I can see it when I come up the driveway. I have no idea where it came from. It was recently featured in Jen Bekman’s 20×200.
NB: What kind of clients are you most interested in working for? What have been your most memorable clients, so far?
RH: I’m interested in doing editorial work and commercial work that approximates my own style, essentially snippets of every day life. Environmental portraits, lifestyle and travel imagery…. pictures of people enjoying themselves, having meaningful moments. I recently shot a portrait of an indie actress for Exit Zero Magazine, and they ended up choosing an outtake that I loved for the index image [editor's note: still waiting to be published, so we can't show it yet]. Things like that are often gratifying– when you shoot very much in your own style and the client likes the result. I really don’t believe in a major style divide between my personal and commercial work: I shoot how I shoot.
NB: What was your experience as a photo editor for Rolling Stone online, Nerve.com, Radar, and in production at Conde Nast? Did you learn anything about the business that has helped you on the other side of the contact sheet, now that you’re a photographer in your own right? Did any of those connections help, work-wise, now that you’re shooting?
RH: Oh, I think it’s made a big, big difference. It’s funny, I started out editing after working for several years at the International Center of Photography, so I had so many great, talented, fresh-off-the-photo-boat students I could hire who were eager to build their books out. Now those folks have been working for a long time, and they’re all very supportive and give me great advice. There’s a big circle of us who will assist each other and throw each other jobs. I think like any business, if you treat people well, you’ll be treated well in return.
I’m also still active on many photo editor and art buying message boards, so I know what that perspective is. And the number one thing buyers ask each other when they’re booking someone for a job is “is this photographer a nice person? are they easy to work with?”… That’s almost always the very first consideration. And I am nice! I don’t think there’s any need to put bad energy out into the world; there’s a lot of competition in this business, and it’s important not to get sucked into any negativity.
Also, I have a lot of experience as an online photo editor, and many people are still trying to figure out that landscape. The rules are a little different there, and things are faster and looser. I’m comfortable working within that structure as a photographer…
NB: How much time do you spend blogging each week, on average? Has blogging helped promote your photography? Any specific jobs that came about from that exposure?
RH: Between my two sites- A Photography Blog, and The Photography Post, I’m pretty much blogging or tweeting, or doing something every day. I think that exposure has opened a lot of doors in terms of getting meetings and being active in the community, though thus far I haven’t done a ton of self-promotion on the blogs- TPP is certainly not meant for that purpose at all.
They’ve really been to stay connected and to see what other people are up to and to have a place to chat. I do post new images once in a while on APB and the feedback is really fantastic. It’s like a little critique or salon space, which is very important to my work. It’s easy to just be a little hobbit in your living room, without any wider perspective on what you’re doing. Once in a while I think an image is FABULOUS and I post it and realize… yeah, not so much. And it also works the other way around.
[note: Rachel talks more about her blogging on Glasshouse's informative Stone Thrower blog]
NB: What did curating the New York Photo Festival entail? That seems like a lot of work! Has it led to any fine art or book projects, or opened up any doors?
RH: That was a HUGE opportunity and a HUGE amount of work! Here is the link to the show: www.mzhphoto.com/luci. I’m really glad I got a crack at curating; it was incredible to conceive of all these images together in concept, but to have them hung on the wall together and have the artists come and meet each other was pretty thrilling. It pretty much ate up three months of our lives. The women I worked on it with, Meagan Ziegler-Hanes, Willy Somma and Marla Caplan are all very active in the industry, and maybe we’ll do another show soon. We are still getting feedback; the press was fantastic.
All that said, I don’t think I’m a natural born curator, there was soooo much production involved, so I think I’m happier with online curation.
NB: Are you still interested in writing? I know that you’ve written for The Daily Beast, Photoshelter’s blog, and elsewhere.
RH: Yes! Very much so. I love writing as much as I love photography. I’m secretly working on a novel about a photographer. Though I guess it’s not so secret now that I’ve told you.
NB: Anything else we should discuss?
RH: I don’t think so- I suppose you could mention my lobster blog: www.yourocklobster.com. So many blogs, so little time!
NB: Indeed.
Don’t forget to check out her website, too: www.rachelhulin.com
-Neil Binkley
