Travels...

Time flies. Almost a month since I last posted anything... Here (again) images taken with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app... Describes pretty well my mood when I arrived in Paris a week ago... It was still dark and there were heavy clouds when it got brighter... CDG is always interesting to look at and it's really needed as well as I had to walk what felt like hours... maybe mainly because I was tired and had watched the inflight entertainment rather than catch up on my sleep...

Lucky day!!!

When I was tasked to do a head shot for Kyle, I suspected that I actually might get a good shot out of it... This is a return to a more studio like setting (which I had eliminated from my portfolio a while ago to not confuse the viewers), but still keeping the narrow focus of my newer work... I shot this at home with a mix of HMIs and daylight... It was a fairly quick set up of maybe 35 minutes...

I absolutely love this image. There is so much in this image for me. To me it shows a lot of qualities of growing up... Partly still being a child, part being a man already... Strong features and a lot of attitude top it all off... Thank you, Kyle!

Two things I love...

When I was tasked to handle the contact with a German writer who wanted to interview the head teacher of the aikido school I practice at, Imaizumi Sensei, I was very excited... In a usual class setting he doesn't really speak that much, so I was curious to see what would happen in an interview situation... What would he share? What pieces of wisdom would he impart? When it turned out that the magazine actually chose me to supply the images for their article I was even more excited... I had been studying at the Shin-Budo Kai main dojo for about 8 years and finally it was time to combine two of the things / arts I like best: Aikido and photography.

I figured I would shoot two classes, the interview and a short formal setting after the interview... And was kindly permitted that setup...

I was of course nervous... I always am. And I get made fun of for it as well...
Usually I am my harshest critic, but in this case I felt I needed to make an extra effort because I wanted to be able to go back and train and not have the shame of a failed shoot follow me around...

And I found new appreciation for what sports photographers do... It is actually not that easy to show the most typical part of an art, a sport or a technique... While it was suggested by a veteran sports photographer to just light a scene and have set up techniques I decided against it... I wanted to capture some of the fun and intensity that I know exists in aikido... That came of course with a price: Low mixed lights and circular motions in changing degrees took their toll in regards to file quality: Noise and missed focus were not making things easy... But in the end I am very happy with what I got.

The images show the story layout for my portfolio & website. For me they show a mix of concentration, intensity and fun that makes aikido so special to me.

Well, summer is here... with a vengeance... Usually a slower time for me, I had big plans regarding finally starting this big project I'm trying to get off the ground... But more about that when I really have something to show... Shooting, post production and the heat have put that on the back burner for now... Not that I'm complaining... ;)
(at least not about the work!)

But to the subject (or picture) at hand: I shot it with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app... I love this app... Wish there was something like that for real cameras... You take the shot and all is done... I mean I love the ability to take images closer to what I "saw" when I took the shot, but all the post production work is actually not that much fun... I'd rather go out and take more pictures...
In any case I love that it makes pix from the iPhone looking interesting... I mean the general quality of that camera (3 GS) is not that great, so every little bit helps...

Taking portraits further...

A few days ago I received two copies of this beautiful German magazine Dogs.
I might be biased though... They had found the cover image (taken by yours truly) via the stock site trunk archive. I am super happy about the cover: The printing looks great and the magazine gives lots of play to photos in general.

About the image: It was taken a while ago... In photo school I had been taught that portraiture is about the image of a human. After years I wanted to see what else could be done inside or outside those parameters... I mean for me it was always more about trying to capture the characteristics of who I encountered than just reproducing the outward shapes of what was presented. I was trying to transport my emotions as well. After I felt that this was possible in the normal settings, I tried to see where else I could take this... Dogs to me show a lot emotion and characteristics on the faces. So they were my first targets...

I like this image because it touches me. Yes, it might be just my imagination or interpretation, but to me there is a lot of stuff going on there!

Well... An artist for another one...

I wanted to post something yesterday about an artist I portrayed recently for the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Unfortunately none of my images made the issue... They used material from her shows to more explain who the artist is and what she does... Well, in any case I was disappointed... When I used to work with a sports photographer to do portraits on someone but that person didn't perform well, the stuff didn't get published... I always felt that was unfair... I mean, we did our job, so we deserved to get published, no? And I was happy that this was not the case with my clients... I guess you never stop learning!
Looking beyond my bruised artist's ego I have to say though that my images wouldn't have made that much sense with the other images selected for that story, so I cannot really fault them... Those images will be posted another time.



So I decided to post an image of another artist I portrayed with writer Mona Eltahawy a little while ago: Shirin Neshat.
We met her in her NYC loft just after the launch of her movie "Women without Men" (which is fabulous by the way!).
She was very welcoming and we got to meet her partner Shoja Azari, their dog Lara and their cat (I didn't catch its name but was informed (after I pet it for a while) not to touch, as it apparently bit other guests before.) The cat was super intrigued by my equipment cases and I had a somewhat hard time to get access to them after it settled right on top of them... Well, I was a little more careful as well, as I just had been told the anecdote about the biting incident...

The image was taken during the interview. I usually try to take images during the interview and do some more formal shots after the writers are done with their stuff... This seems to give me the chance to capture more animated sides of the subject as they are not that aware of the camera. What I like about it is that it shows Shirin's spirit, the natural elegance of her posture and the way she uses her hands to communicate.

Not much else to report other than that one of my HMI ballasts broke, so I had to improvise regarding my lighting set up.

First image post... Yeah!

I shot this self portrait last week while trying to figure out a modified lighting set up for an assignment for the German magazine Der Spiegel... In times of digital cameras and low budgets I find this a very good way of figuring out what works and what doesn't so much in way of lighting someone: Setting up the lights and taking an image of myself as a stand in... Repeat the process until satisfied. In this case the end results were very different than what this looks like...
The article in Der Spiegel is scheduled to come out on Monday. Regarding the way I look: This is after 4 hours of aikido training. ;)