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Laurent Nivalle Photography
August 3rd, 2010French photographer Laurent Nivalle has a stunning portfolio, but it’s his Le Mans Classic series that just blows my mind. The mix of vintage race cars, and the faded colors trick you into believing that these are photos from the 60s. The crops and compositions are just perfect, and the buttery shallow depth of field make the images irresistible. Makes me miss DSLRs. Laurent does also have an excellent gallery iPhone photography.
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It’s Not The Gear
July 21st, 2010Lately, I’ve been hit with the photography bug. It usually happens to me once a year. It goes something like this: I get the bug, I research cameras for a week, I buy an expensive camera, I use it non-stop for a few months, the bug goes away, I sell the camera.
I’m a gear head, so when I become obsessed with something I immediately try to find all the best gear that I can get my hands on. It’s good because I get to learn and experience new things, but it’s also bad on my wallet. And when it comes to photo gear, there’s no stopping me.
Until recently.
After countless cameras, and years of searching for the perfect camera that would push my photos to the next level, I’m now a firm believer that the best camera is the camera that you have with you. Yes, a Hasselblad H4D-60 will blow any other camera away, but you don’t see many people in street with a $42,000 camera hanging from their necks.
I hated lugging around a big ass body, with a big ass lens and a hood attached to it. That was the primary reason why I would stop shooting: I didn’t want to carry around all that stuff. I used to carry around a Hasselblad 503, with a prism and metal hood. The damn thing weighted a ton — and it sure captured some amazing photos — but after a few hours of carrying it, I wanted to throw it in the garbage. I hated that feeling because it ruined the moment and eventually led me to feel unmotivated. The tool was getting in the way of my creativity.
Now I just shoot with my iPhone 4. I already carry it around, and the built-in camera is pretty damn good. When I see an interesting shot, I just pull it out and snap a photo. The joy and spontaneity of shooting is instantly back. I would love it if Apple added some advanced features to the camera app — like shutter and aperture control — and I do miss me some depth of field, but overall the phone produces some fine images.
I think I’ve achieved some good results with this little camera. I took the photo to the left with my iPhone. This guy did a fashion shoot with an iPhone 3GS. Granted, he used a great lighting system, but the images are still impressive. Check out these folks who took a great looking shot with a Canon Powershot SD630 and some basic lighting. Professional fashion photographer Terry Richardson does entire shoots with a Yashica T4 point and shoot and the photos look great.
Don’t get me wrong, it is much easier to produce a great photo with high-end camera. That’s why it’s even more impressive when a great photo is taken with a lower-end one. The talent truly shines in that case.
My point is, in any creative field, the tool isn’t important. It’s what’s behind the tool that counts. So, don’t stress about getting a Canon 1Ds Mark III or the latest version of Photoshop. Just create.
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Todd Richardson Photography
July 13th, 2010When I first saw Todd Richardson’s photos, I was in amazement on how similar his style is to mine. The color tones, subject matter, and composition is eerily close to my work. So it’s not a surprise that I absolutely love his work.
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The Corinthian
March 24th, 2009I don’t post much about my photography, maybe it’s because I don’t shoot enough to warrant it, but I want to change that. I’ve been thinking about my next camera and it comes down to a Nikon D90 or a Leica D-Lux 4. The Leica is winning because it’s compact and I’ll use it more, but I don’t like the lack of a short depth of field.
Anyway, I currently use a basic Panasonic FX33 which isn’t even good for family photos. I sometimes manage to get some decent shots from it like the one above. I came across this interesting apartment building in Manhattan and just snapped away. The curves of the building and the gray sky made for some excellent silhouettes. You can view more photos of the building here. I also snapped this nice pic this past weekend.
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Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
March 10th, 2009Visual Acoustics is a documentary film by Eric Bricker that explores the career of the extraordinary architectural photographer, Julius Shulman. His aesthetics, composition and style create timeless photographs that epitomize modern architecture. Shulman is easily one of my favorite photographers.
Unfortunately there isn’t a good online gallery of his complete work, you have to do some searching to find most of it. But there is an amazing book set titled Julius Shulman, Modernism Rediscovered that catalogues his personal archives. Gotta get my hands on a copy.
The film is being screened in limited cities, one of which isn’t NYC, which I don’t understand. Shulman himself will be speaking at some of the screenings and if you’re lucky enough to be in one of these cities, definitely check it out. It’s should be a good one.
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Max Wanger Photography
January 20th, 2009Gorgeous photography by Max Wanger. The colors and the emotions that are captured make the images exceptional.
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Kim Høltermand Photography
November 20th, 2008I’m loving Kim Høltermand’s photography. The colors, composition and subject matter give the images a very graphic feel. Makes me want to get back into photography.
Kim is also responsible for these excellent VW tribute posters but it seems like they’ve been removed from the site.
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Sun Silo
August 23rd, 2008I used to be obsessed with photography, so much so that I was about to leave my career in graphic design to pursue a career in fashion photography. It didn’t end up that way and I’m glad, but I still have a great love for it. I use to have a nice pro camera and would snap tons of photos a day, but now I have a basic point & shoot that I use for family pics and I haven’t shot a nice photo in a while.
Recently I’ve been messing around with the camera in my iPhone and in certain situations I’ve been somewhat impressed. For instance this shot I took today of the NYC skyline. The light was amazing and it was the perfect time of day where the sun was creating some amazing silhouettes. So I launched the camera app and snapped away and got some excellent results. The resolution of the camera isn’t great at all but this photo is pretty much straight from the iPhone with some slight tweaking in Photoshop. You can see a couple of more photos from this series including a nice panoramic shot I stitched together in Photoshop.
On a side note, a lot of photographers frown upon the use of Photoshop to enhance photos. I think that’s a load of rubbish. I started shooting before the digital crazy and I love film but in the digital age, using Photoshop to adjust an image is the same as using a darkroom to adjust an image. Photoshop is the digital darkroom of today. Just how photographers keep the film soaking in the chemicals longer for different results, I adjust the levels, curves, color balance, saturation, etc. in Photoshop to achieve my results. In the end it’s all the same but just using a different tool.
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Erika Pham Photography
May 5th, 2008The talented David Corti (AKA Mr. September Industry) has informed me that he just finished up some work for photographer Erika Pham. David designed a sexy business card as well as an elegant and simple site with some interesting navigation.
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Wear Palettes
January 7th, 2008Photo by Scott Schuman
Wear Palettes is a great blog by Swiss graphic design student Daniel that features about 1500 color palettes that are based on the photography at The Sartorialist. An excellent inspiration of color.
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Graphic — Photography
December 7th, 2007I love photography that implements graphic design into the composition. This gorgeous Flickr set by photographer Ram Martinez is exactly the type. I love how simple and graphic the backgrounds are and how he makes the model part of the design. When I first looked at it I wonder how difficult it must have been to setup this shot, but the more I look at it the more I’m convinced the the background was added in post production. Still, there must have been a crazy amount of planning to get this to work right. Ram did an amazing job.
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Frozen In Time
November 23rd, 2007This is one of the most amazing photos I’ve ever seen. Very powerful.