Archive for August, 2012
Quick Tip: Why I Often Prefer “Real” People
Tips + Tricks 
3
Thu 08.30.2012
This was shot at F/8 @ 1/250 sec. using Canon 5D at 85 mm.
Quick Tip: Despite popular opinion, it is not always essential to shoot professional models. For many of my lifestyle shoots, I actually prefer to photograph real people. For example, in this shot for John Deere, I found that real people created a more authentic story/feeling.
What are you thoughts – do you prefer shooting real people or paid pros?
I am the first to admit that I am lazy when it comes to consuming news. I can’t remember the last time I picked up a newspaper and often feel bombarded by RSS feed notifications, newsletter wrap-ups (delete!), and the overwhelming amount of content provided by a single google search. When co-founder Brad Cross’s wife Petra informed me of the revolutionary new way Prismatic delivers content she told me “say goodbye to your free time”. I was skeptical. Like I said, I gave up on reading much news a long time ago. Life as a pro-photographer is freaking busy. Despite my reservations, I decided I better give Prismatic a try. The result? Within one week of the iphone release it is one of the top 3 apps running on my phone. It has officially made the coveted main menu bar spot – it’s that good.
So how does it work and why is it great?
Sleek, innovative and universally easy-to-use, Prismatic is changing the way we consume and share news. This smart software filters through your networks to deliver personalized news while introducing you to a whole new realm of social news sharing. The Prismatic website packs all the news we want to read into an easy to navigate user interface.
- Customized news delivery: No longer are we bogged down with a multitude of social networks loaded with an excess of unrelated content. Prismatic connects to your Twitter, Facebook or Google reader account to find out what content actually interest you. Once logged in, Prismatic screens all links shared within your social networks, and then sorts through people you follow to create customized news feeds.
- Interest Bubble: Prismatic reins in all of your top interest and add them to your profile interest bubble cloud. The interest bubble is located on user profiles and act as a symbol of what content your actually into.
- Creditable Content: Semantic-filtering algorithms search through thousands of articles to filter out the junk and deliver only high quality content from creditable sources.
- Consistently Relevant Information: In addition to analyzing your social media behavior, simply liking and disliking content will allow the software to better tailor your news feed to reflect your interest.
- Social Sharing: Prismatic is making news consumption social in a way that has never been done before. Connect and share content with friends and followers directly through the sites navigation buttons. Here you can tweet, tag and email articles all without ever leaving the user dashboard.
- Interactive Tags: A series of tags are created to go along with each article. Tags allow for social news discovery, by introducing you to topics that you may have never normally searched for.
- Expand your Interests: One of my favorite features on Prismatic, is how the program offers different reading suggestions. The software creates a list of articles outside of your personal tags to introduce you to new content and news stories.
- The App: As an added bonus Prismatic just created a sick new iPhone app! The touchscreen interface provides easy navigation, allowing you to toggle between personalized news, full stories, interest categories and more.
You can check out and sign up for Prismatic here! And if you are curious….here is a peek at my bubbles :)
Check out my bubbles!!
Being completely selfless and giving for the sake of just giving has not always come naturally for me. When I was younger I even went so far as leaving the price tag on a presents “on accident” just so the recipient knew how much I spent. Am I proud of this? Absolutely not. I was young and dumb and did not realize that truly giving has nothing to do with the giver. In fact, life’s greatest gifts are given with no expectation for return – including recognition.
The gift of a photograph is one that many often take for granted. Some people haven’t had their picture taken in over a decade; some never have had the opportunity. Everyone has a story to tell, a journey to document. A single photograph can allow a person to feel a sense of hope, joy, and importance.
You have the opportunity to use your passion to make a difference in someone else’s life. To transform the way a person sees him or herself, in a way that is truly empowering. Please see details on Help Portrait below:
We are reaching out to our amazing community of followers to get involved! Help-Portrait needs your support to make their passion of helping others truly get the attention it deserves. For those of you unfamiliar with the organization; Help-Portrait is a non-profit group who gives away portraits to less fortunate people around the world. After nearly three years, 25,000 photographers, 56 countries, 700 events, and giving away nearly 170,000 portraits their team is rallying together to spread awareness to their awe-inspiring cause!
Although the reach of Help-Portrait has been undeniably amazing, there are still so many portraits to be fulfilled. The time is now to have our community help make Help-Portrait a household name. The only way Help-Portrait can do this is with your assistance! Currently, there are more than 25,500 people within the Help-Portrait community. {If each of you donated $5US, we could raise enough funds to hire a small team of people while covering some desperately needed developmental costs for our community and donation management systems. }
Check out more on Help-Portrait cause: http://hp.cta.gs/helphp
To Donate: http://hp.cta.gs/donate
The wedding season is officially in full-swing: bachelorette and bachelor parties are roaring, wedding coordinators are in a tizzy of last-minute planning, and photographers are anticipating a bevy of once-in-a-lifetime moments to capture on film.The beauty, harmony, and joyous celebration that accompany wedding ceremonies inspire me to create the highest caliber of images possible.
I’m particularly fascinated by wedding locations. Location reflects a couple’s values and aesthetic ideals. Whether they select a quaint cottage nestled in a redwood forest, an ornate villa on a remote shorefront, or a red-brick Methodist church, their choice of a wedding environment communicates a message to their community of family and friends. Last year, Courtney’s and Johnny’s selection of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn for their wedding ceremony spoke to me on a deep level.
The overall experience distinctively and authentically bespoke Northern California’s wine country. From a rehearsal dinner in a wine cellar that was embedded in a hillside to an outdoor cocktail hour surrounded by the rich, warm color palette of Sonoma Valley, Courtney and Johnny’s wedding location was at once sumptuous, earthy, and refined.
Sue Bryce Turned Me Into An Addict!
Blog, Tips + Tricks 15
Thu 08.23.2012
I once heard that when Sue Bryce photographs you, you become addicted. I wasn’t exactly sure what the meant. I mean – how do you become addicted to having your photograph taken? It is hard work to be a model – I can see it as thrilling, exciting, but addictive? Not so much. I ate my words on this one…
Those of us familiar with Sue Bryce and her stunning work understand that she has a way of transforming her subjects (see before and after). Most assume its Photoshop. I was guilty of this assumption – but, I didn’t care, I just wanted to look fabulous. However, Sue doesn’t use much Photoshop …. she doesn’t have too.
Sue is very meticulous. Hair and makeup have to be flawless – she is there the entire time to make sure there is no room for error. While shooting, she notices every single detail and is constantly coaching you with her soothing, yet oh-so-sexy Australian accent – is your jaw relaxed, is your chin forward & down (her most famous line), is your hand soft, is your collar bone popping just right, is your hair BIG enough, the list goes on. And, I am certain attention to all of these elements make her an astounding portrait photographer….but these are techniques and Sue Bryce’s skill supersedes mere technique.
Which leads us to why I am addicted to Sue Bryce and the greatest lesson she has taught me. It’s really quite simple…..Beauty. She makes you feel like the most beautiful, sexy, desirable, confident person on earth. She went beyond showing me in my best light, she actually allowed me to view myself in a new way. Now this is a gift, which, 10 months later, I am still riding the high of.
So this is one of the many things I have learned from Sue Bryce: Beauty is beyond the physical and radiates from all of us – sometimes we just need someone to coax it out. As a portrait photographer practice making your subjects feel like a million bucks, – the camera has a funny way of recording the non-physical.
Credits:
The photo shoot was taken at the incredible Jade Studios in San Francisco, California. Clifford Hashimoto is a genius and a true master at hair and makeup, it was a pleasure to be able to be transformed by him! Want to hear more details about the shoot? Check out episode 28 of TWiT PHOTO with Sue Bryce.
