Fluffy Last Minute Holiday Gift Idea

Thursday December 17th, 2009

Down to the wire on Holiday gift ideas? Natalie Young, one of our  Los Angeles photographers, just informed us that you can receive her photo book in time for Xmas if you order by this Sunday (or the 23rd, if you’re in LA). And who wouldn’t want charming black and white dog photographs for the holidays? It’s called Georgia & Sabine, named for this dachsund duo:

Options for the 60-page book include either a soft cover version, or a special limited edition hardcover of 100 presented in a slipcase with an original silver gelatin print, which is signed by the artist.

The book includes an essay  by Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, director of the Kaunas Photo Festival, who describes the book thusly: “Georgia and Sabine stands out of thousands, if not millions, of pet photographs because of its simplicity and intimacy.” I certainly find it reminiscent of some of my favorite Elliott Erwitt dog photographs.

A few more of Natalie’s images:

You can purchase the book directly from Natalie’s fine art website. Just click on the “Books” link.

Aside from producing books of canine intrigue, this past year Natalie was named one of the Top 50 Photographers in PhotoLucida’s Critical Mass competition, as well as being nominated for the Santa Fe Prize for Photography. She was also in a  show with blogger/photographer Amy Stein, both featuring their animal photographs.

Natalie’s commercial work can be found here, and below is a sampling of the “tradtional” side of her work.

So we seem to cover all of the cute bases for the holiday: dogs and babies (and my apologies to those who don’t find them cute)!

-Neil Binkley

PDN’s Photo Expo This Week:
Tyler Stableford’s Seminars On High-Selling Stock Photos, Plus Adobe Lightroom

Tuesday October 20th, 2009

PDN’s Photo Expo uses Tyler Stableford’s image (above) to promote their annual photography conference, where Tyler is also leading several workshops. Tyler is a Wonderful Machine photographer based in Aspen. Here’s more about his workshops:

This Thursday, October 22, 2009 at the New York PhotoPlus Expo, acclaimed photographer Tyler Stableford will present a seminar on shooting high-selling images. The lecture is titled “Shooting Stock: Creating Exceptional Work & Making Your Ideas Profitable.”

Tyler Stableford’s photography has earned him a worldwide clientele in both assignment work and stock. An accomplished shooter of both Rights-Managed (RM) and Royalty-Free (RF) business models, Stableford focuses on capturing singular top-selling images of outdoor adventure and heavy industry, often in challenging locations. In this seminar Stableford will discuss his proven methods for getting world-class shots while traveling light and using relatively basic lighting setups. He will also share how he focuses his shot list to maximize income and how he gains access to restricted locations. Stableford will provide examples from his tightly honed list of top-selling shoots.

Tyler has been named by Men’s Journal as one of the seven “World’s Greatest Adventure Photographers,” and he is one of Canon’s prestigious Explorers of Light. Tyler has won numerous awards from Communication Arts (incl. the cover image), PDN and The International Photography Awards, among others. His stock imagery is represented by Getty Images. The lecture will be held at the Javits center in the TC4 auditorium.

Tyler is also hosting a two-hour seminar on Friday afternoon titled “Real World Lighting, Real Results: Using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 & Photoshop CS4 for Exceptional Travel and Outdoor Photography.” This will be held in the FC9 auditorium.

For more information on Tyler’s presentations at the PhotoPlus Expo, please see: www.tylerstableford.com/news To register for any of these events, please visit: www.photoplusexpo.com.

The Changing Roles of The Automotive Photographer

Wednesday February 11th, 2009

When John Early, one of our automotive photographers, prepares for a shoot, it now could mean one of many things. Wonderful Machine’s Los Angeles-based shooter has more than embraced the various technologies that his field has seen: he was an early pioneer of the “VR” imagery that every auto manufacturer has used on their websites. This enhancement to traditional still photography allows web users to view their potential dream purchase from all angles, even as if they were sitting inside the car.

John says that he “got into VR in the late 1990s when I saw that the only people doing VRs (panoramas or objects) of cars were computer-geek companies that had the technology down, but not the aesthetic eye and lighting skills to make the car look good.”

His early adoption even caught the attention of Apple computers, who features him on their website (apparently his first Apple computer was an Apple IIe with dual 360K floppy drives). They profile one example where John used 30 cameras to create a VR video.

Recently, with the popularity of of CGI (3D imagery), advertising agencies have even hired John as a director of photography and lighting. He doesn’t pick up a camera for these projects, but instead guides computer artists to make the images look realistic and well-lit. John says that this process is still very expensive, so traditional photography still has a place in the automotive industry, at least for a while.

Speaking of which, John also has an involved process when he’s shooting on location. He displays a behind the scenes video on his website which documents several shoots. In some instances you’ll see his use of a carbon fiber “boom arm” which extends to fifty feet, and is rigged to both the car and the camera. The result gives a more natural appearance of motion than Photoshop can provide for him, while maintaining a crisp image of the car:

John Early’s work appears on many automotive websites and in print, and you can see more of his photography and motion photography on his own website. You’ll also notice the same attention to detail displayed in his still life photography.