dispatches

Don't get attached

There was a moment when I had 14 days filled in as shooting days for the month. Now it's down to less than half that. I thought I was getting on a plane to San Francisco Sunday, but this afternoon I learned that gig has been moved back two weeks. “I would hate to have your job,” says Robin, who basically fills in her appointment calendar a year in advance. “You're lucky to have the temperament you do.” Which is, basically, I can never make up my mind, so I don't mind it a lot if the universe can't either.

Though I wish I had more work, the chant of any freelancer, except when they have too much. There is not, I suppose, a happy medium. I am never so happy as when on assignment, though I am suffering at the moment from a stiff neck and a pain radiating down my arm, perhaps from slinging too many heavy cameras or, more likely, from straining at a computer monitor for too many uninterrupted hours. I had our “anarcho-puncturist” make of my neck and shoulder a pincushion, which seems to have helped a little.

John Goodin, from the dance band Contratopia, posted a blog entry about me photographing at the Glen Echo Friday dance, so I'm returning the favor. Those shots are up on Flickr, as are a posting from the previous weekend's Camp Wannadance. The great coincidence of that evening, was that John is on the faculty of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and I'll be shooting there in a couple of weeks. At last report it was about to snow there—one hopes that spring arrives before I do.

Joy of environmental portraiture

A location photographer's stock in trade is his/her skill in environmental portraiture. If you get hired by a magazine, 95% of the time that's the gig—photograph someone (usually some white guy in a tie) in an environment. Like their office. Or their workplace. If you're lucky, you get to drag them to someplace that has some metaphorical association to the story. Like the risk management expert that I perched underneath a maze of highway overpasses, back when stories of them collapsing was in the news. For a cultural instant it had the frisson of a dangerous place to be, and it worked for the story.

This week I'm photographing some typical hyper-achieving Uchicago students/graduates in something that resembles what they do. A playwright on a stage, looking beyond the fourth wall. A couple of improv artists, pretending to be gargoyles. A violinist-composer, who brought in some friends (viola, cello, harp) for a faux performance for the camera.

In each instance, what was the most wonderful aspect of the encounter was getting to spend a little time in someone else's world. The playwright was a “little communist baby” in Poland, and we had a wonderful discussion about the role of paranoia in the current political climate. With one of the improv guys we mixed up our jackets, which were identical, which made me either totally cool or him totally nerdy. When I had them looking over a balcony I said, you know, this is a reprise of the Beatles Blue Album. The reference went over their heads, which allowed me to tease them about their lack of cultural literacy. With the musicians I had a lot to talk about, mostly in musical arenas beyond their direct experience because I'm such a folkie and they are all classically trained, and we riffed on the differences between the traditions.

What I tell baby photographers is, don't get a photography education. It's only a skill set, and it changes every five years anyway. Get a liberal arts education. Learn everything you can about everything. Your job, if you choose to stay in this profession, is to be curious for a living.

Watch out where you post

Another reason I ought to pull out of Flickr: This report of a Flickr user's photos ending up on iStockPhoto without her permission-- http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9867114-39.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Underexposed

iPhone road warrior

I was so prepped to use my new iPhone on my trip to DC this week, to navigate to my hotel, to keep up on emails from the client—basically, to be a road warrior on steroids.

I emerged from the Metro, ready to find my hotel on the "Maps" feature. Only, I got  “No Service” for a signal. Come on, I'm in the center of Washington, DC. I walked a little ways down the block. Still no signal. I turned the phone off and restarted it. No signal. This trip just got a lot more interesting.

A block later, out of the shadow of the George Washington University Hospital, I got my four bars back. 

What I love, and didn't expect to: the email function. I spend a fair amount of time in airports, but I usually refuse to pay for wireless unless it's urgent. Every airport seems to have a different plan, and it annoys me to no end. Today I got off the plane and turned on the phone, and viewed an updated schedule for my shoot tomorrow and the location for our breakfast meeting. I was able to call the client, before she left for the day, to confirm that I was current with all the latest goings on. Without having to fire up the laptop. Or wait until I got to the hotel to do it for free (as if, half the time). This is going to change my life.

What I wish worked better: the email function. Why can't I select 20 messages at once and delete them? Why can't I organize them in folders, and sync it with my laptop?

What I miss from my old phone: the clock. Really. I'm used to using my phone as a pocket watch. I glance at it to know what time it is. Now I have to push a button. I can't wear wristwatches—the watchbands give me a rash. Oh well.

Another thing that bothers me—it's a slippery little devil, this iPhone. I feel like it's going to slide out of my hand like a wet fish. I felt the same way about the Macbook, which is why I put self-adhesive plastic grippers on the base. I may want to look for something like that for the phone.

Just one more. The "flick" feature is really cool.  Flick your finger up the screen, and the webpage scrolls  the opposite direction. It's totally intuitive. Except it's precisely the opposite motion you use when scrolling a webpage on the Macbook skating rink. I'm now mixing them up, doing the wrong thing on each device.

It's Web 2.0--do you know where your rights are?

This from Paul Melcher's great blog on the stock photo industry, pointing to a Facebook rights grab. Here is the language in the Facebook Terms of Use:

"By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing."

It seems some news organizations have been sweeping Facebook for content, claiming "Fair Use," which is what brought this to the fore. It appears that by posting anything on the site, you've given away the right to reproduce your work anywhere, by anyone, for no compensation, and you can't do a thing about it.

LA stories

Tonight we made it back to Seattle after a wedding extravaganza in Los Angeles. Elly made us dinner, and supplied us with fortune cookies from takeout earlier in the weekend. Mine read: “You may attend a party where strange customs prevail.”

The wedding was a big, traditional Sephardic affair, of my wife's third cousin's daughter. By coincidence, Miriam and Josh's photo, that I took, was on the splash page of the Yeshiva University website last week (they met there). The event felt like I was back in Washington Heights when I shot the Yeshiva U viewbook.

I watched the pro photographers at work. They were efficient and good, and at one point we talked shop. John Solano and his wife do 130 weddings a year. They obviously know what they're doing. “I don't know how to do anything else,” he told me.

My first thought was, how does he handle that massive data stream (he shoots RAW). Here's how: seven employees (“Though I edit every one,” he said). And a new 14 terabyte server.  Later I asked the bride's mom how much the photography was costing (answer: a lot more than I charge). I did a quick calculation, figured in the substantial overhead, and realized these people were not getting wealthy.

But they were pros—they knew to get close, they directed only minimally and didn't interrupt the natural flow of the event. Whenever I saw them shooting, I tried to steer clear and photograph my own way elsewhere. It meant I got to do my own weird shots of what, for me and many of the guests, was an exotic spectacle of a wedding.

There is a lot of dancing at an Orthodox Jewish wedding. It's segregated though, men on one side, women on the other, and a wall in between. An enduring photographic exploration of mine is dance as social cohesion, so I got into the middle of the men's circle. It felt like a rugby scrum in a mosh pit, filled with joyful abandon.

Here are some photos.

May we steal your photo please?

Well, at least they asked.

I got an email today that is edging me closer to pulling all my work off of Flickr. In it, a company, Schmap.com, said that they "selected" one of my photos for the "short-list" for inclusion in their Vancouver Guide. They got the photo off of Flickr. Here's an excerpt.

"While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr."

This is a commercial, ad-supported site, that is harvesting free content from Flickr. I declined their generous offer (they included a link and an easy check-box to remove the photos). I think maybe they're trying to behave ethically in a morally dubious morass. And they're probably right about the pleasure this gives some photographers. There is a enormous pool of people with shiny new digital cameras who would be tickled that someone likes their photo enough to publish it. Payment? Value? That's sooo 20th Century. All content should be free, right?

Awkward together

Chips, the Luther College newspaper, did a story about their new marketing effort and about my time photographing on campus. It's a great little piece. My favorite quote:

“If it’s not a good enough photo it’s because you’re not close enough,” explained Plummer. “I use the awkwardness as a part of the whole thing. You’re awkward, I’m awkward, we’re awkward together.”

Link here: http://chips.luther.edu/modules/news/article.php?storyid=85

Gotta brag

I got this note from the mother of the bride of last weekend's wedding, and I have her permission to post it. Although weddings are only a minor part of my business, (and probably because they are), I really like doing them. This is why:

"I'm sitting here in my home in Pennsylvania with tears running down my face. This morning I emailed a friend and told her I was experiencing some feelings of letdown since our return from Seattle this past Sunday evening. And then I went to your website to take another look at your picture of the day for 8/25 and discovered the slide shows you posted.  Thank you, thank you, thank you...not only for your amazing sensitivity and ability to capture that special time but also your equally amazing talent to be there in the moment with us...and without us realizing you are visually capturing it for us.  John and I have spoken of this many times since the wedding weekend and are so happy Kate and Erik found you and that you agreed to shoot their wedding.  Looking at these photos brings tears but tears of pure joy. 

"And so I can sit here in Pennsylvania, look at these photos and be emotional..but in a very different and and happier way then I've been feeling these past few days. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Weddings

I cry at weddings. I like it when a wedding makes me emotional. I especially like it when it's one I am shooting.

I am hopelessly earnest about most things, but especially so about marriage. It helps that I have a particularly good one. I really believe in the meaning behind the vows.

Weddings are not easy events to do well, and a lot of photographers are rightly scared of them. They  require an instantaneous response to events happening around you, and you need the experience to know when and where those moments are going to happen. And you need to stay on for many hours. I am selective about the weddings I shoot and, because of how I present myself, there is a self-selection of the kind of couple who is going to be comfortable with my approach. They need to know that I'm likely to be seen getting drippy behind the camera.

Kate and Erik's was the best kind of wedding for me to shoot, and they fully embedded me into the weekend. The wedding day started with a five mile hike to the mountain peak where they got engaged. The afternoon ceremony was full of heartfelt and honest meaning. Both of them got drippy when they exchanged rings and vows, as did most of the audience.

I felt fully embraced by both sides of these warm, loving families. The mother of the bride, the father of the bride, the mother and uncle of the groom, all came up to me at various times and said, “You were so a part of this! Thank you!”