The website is now live at www.imageworkshop.com – please head on over and take a look!

This week, a look at the work of Chris Crisman and see what grandma can do in the Mamika series. A look also at some great sports silhouette’s by Cole Barash, a TED talk by Chris Orwig on The Poetics of Pictures and some black and white technique via Chase Jarvis.

Enjoy!

1. Chris Crisman

Chris Crisman has a very polished and produced look to his images. Whilst this isn’t every one’s cup of tea, I think his work is great. His images are very simple and clean. They are well lit and composed, creating very strong images. That said, the thing that is perhaps the most compelling about his work is that his images convey a sense of story – there is a sense of depth to the images, which draws you in and makes you pause and look a little longer.

Chris has created much of his personal work in and around Titusville, PA – the town where he grew up. This self funded personal work has led to a number of assignments, and is testament to the philosophy of ‘shoot what you love’.

Take a look through his portfolio, and see for yourself. There is an article on Strobist which has interesting insights on how Chris approaches his photography, and where he draws his inspiration from.

2. Mamika Series

French photographer Sacha Goldberger decided to cheer up his depressed 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika by suggesting that they shoot a series of photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma was reluctant at first, but once they got started…well the rest is history.

There are two blog posts that have a good round up for some of the series here and here, but also head over to Sacha’s website to see the rest of his work and the full Mamika series.

3. Cole Barash Silhouettes

In general, I don’t like silhouettes – especially where sports are concerned. Now, this isn’t because the pictures aren’t good – it’s more of a case of being overdone and cliche.   I stumbled across this post on fstoppers with a behind the scenes video from Cole Barash, and I have to say I was blown away. These would have to be some of best silhouette sports shots I have ever seen.

See all the pictures on Coles blog, and watch the video below to get some insight into how the images were created. Hint – you need some mega sized scrims and lots of lights.

4. Chris Orwig – The poetics of pictures

I always enjoy TED talks – some more than others. This is an interesting short presentation by Chris Orwig which really hits the sweat spot on what really brings the X-factor to an image and how to say more with less.

In this talk, Chris relates a quote from Jay Maisel, who was once asked

“How do you become a better Photographer?”

Jay’s reply:

“Become a more interesting person.”

I like that.

Chris also has a 10 minute interview with Jay Maisel on his blog which is worth a listen to pick up some interesting insights from someone with over 50 years experience as a photographer.

5. Chase Jarvis – Tips on Black & White conversions

Creating a punchy black and white is more than just hitting the monochrome button in Lightroom. I am a huge fan of punchy, contrasty black and white images. Scott, the retoucher for Chase Jarvis shares some of the work-flow that was used for the black and white conversions for the Seattle 100 project.

Every year, we go away to Hanmer Springs for an annual Swing Dance social event. Part of this weekend away always entails a dress up theme for the main Saturday night dance, and this year the theme was ‘dress as your teenage self’.

Now this is a theme which is guaranteed not to disappoint! We decided to take along the camera, and not miss out on the opportunity for some great photos.

Swing Dancing is a partner dance that was the predominant dance craze through the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Sharon and I are both avid swing dancers, and we teach at the local public swing classes as well as taking our own private classes and swing dance performances. (On a side note, we will be teaching and performing at the upcoming Jambalaya festival in March 2011, so if you are in Auckland around that time you should come along!)

The local swing dance club here in Christchurch is called The Swingtown Rebels. The picture on the right here is a picture I took of Sarah and Becky, who run the club. Sharon gave this image the royal rebel treatment, and I think that the end result is awesome.

If you look carefully, you will find a picture of me in the photos below… but I am not telling you which one is me – you will have to guess.

Setup Details

The setup for the photography was a simple setup – inspired by Zack Arias and his one light concept, I decided to stick to just one light and not over complicate things.

I located a back corner of the hall which was out of the way and had a blank grey wall as a nice neutral backdrop.  A Nikon SB26 at 1/2 power was set up with a 43″ white shoot through umbrella, and placed to camera right just above head height. The light was about 12 feet from the background wall, and people were generally asked to stand about 6 feet from the light – however this was changed up a bit to achieve certain pictures, so the camera settings were adjusted accordingly. The light was triggered using a set of Pocket Wizard Plus II’s.

The images were shot using a Canon 5D mkII and an EF28-70mm f2.8 L Lens. The camera settings varied slightly, but were all shot at 1/125th, with an ISO between 320 and 640, and aperture between f5.6 and f7.1. The images below have only had minor photoshop done to remove dust and marks off the wall, and some tweaks to contrast/colour and sharpness.

If you don’t know what I am talking out – it’s Movember. Each year, Movember is the excuse used by men around the world to grow facial hair – much to the general disgust of their wives or girlfriends who have to walk around with him whilst he proudly struts his Mo.

A Mo for a cause

Luckily, it’s all in the name of a good charity and secretly I think the ladies like a little bit of facial hair (if only a little bit). Those partaking in the facial-hair-fun are encouraged to seek donations from friends and family to help raise funds for mens health. In New Zealand, the money goes to mental health and prostate cancer awareness, amongst other men’s health related things.

I have been a part of Movember in the past, but this year I have not let my facial hair run wild; however, a group of people that I work with have been hard at work growing some fancy Mo’s.

Today is the last day for Movember, so I gathered the team together to take some portraits of the finished moustaches.

Make a donation

If you would like to make a donation to support these guys for Movember, then please follow this link to make a donation. At the last check they had raised $1,266 – which is an awesome effort!

Today is the last day, so if you want to make a contribution, then you must do it today.

The primary reason for our visit to Vietnam was for a holiday – to experience a different culture and to feed our adventurous side. The last 18 months have been pretty tough for us, with a sick family member necessitating numerous long and stressful trips half way across the globe. Vietnam was an opportunity for us to go away and have a little fun.

Both Sharon and myself are a little mad when it comes to photography – so a trip to Vietnam would not have been complete without taking along the camera and taking a few photos. Well, one camera wasn’t enough, so we took 3 – and we didn’t hold back –  6,500 pictures and video, 180GB of hard drive space later we are now back in Christchurch – with one hell of an editing job ahead of us.

The picture above was taken by Sharon Blance, while we were walking through a small village somewhere in the north western loop of Vietnam. We were befriended by 3 little boys, and one boy in particular led us down the street and pointed excitedly and made binoculars signs with his hands in front of his face to excitedly indicate what he wanted me to take pictures of. They would then all gather around to review the image and then giggle hilariously before setting off to find the next target. Sharon captured this great moment while they were all peering over my shoulder to look at the images on the back of the camera.

I will be posting more information and images over the coming weeks about our trip, but for now there is lots of editing to be done!

All the camera gear is stored on a shelf about 5 feet off the ground. The 70-200mm f2.8 had taken a tumble, but looks like the lens is OK. Luckily the rest of the gear did not fall off the shelf!

We took a walk through town, and there are a number of buildings that did not fair too well -  mostly old brick buildings, which is really sad. At the end of this post are some of the photos I took during a walk through town this morning. My Partner Sharon has also posted images she took on her blog.

So far there have been no reported fatalities, which is a miracle considering the amount of damage. We were very lucky.

5/09/2010 Update

The earthquake started with a 5.4 earthquake that lasted 5 seconds before the 7.1 quake hit. The whole thing lasted for 40 seconds, which is quite a long time when you are getting shaken and bumped about. Because it was 4:35am, it was pitch black. Sharon and I clambered over to the door frame, which was difficult given the amount of movement caused by the earthquake. We braced ourselves in the door frame whilst we listened to things crashing and smashing around our house.

Video of the damage

The first stretch of damaged shops shown in this video is at the corner of Barbadoes & Edgeware streets and is only a few blocks away from our house. Yikes!

This video shows some aerial footage and gives you a good idea of how bad the damage is in different areas.

Our power and water are going again now, however, we have to boil all our water for 3 minutes as there have been sewerage lines break, and they are not sure if the water is contaminated.

We have been continually shaken by aftershocks since the main event yesterday, with most of these aftershocks being about 3.5 to 4.5 in strength. I feel like I am on a boat!

The magnitude of this earthquake was similar to the one in California in 1989 where numerous stacked motorways collapsed on each other, and also similar in magnitude to the recent devastating quake in Haiti, in which thousands of people died. Christchurch appears to have had a lucky break – there are 3 people who had serious injuries, but currently there are no reported fatalities. Most of the inner city is a little shaky, with many buildings not considered safe. All of the inner city is currently being assessed for safety.

My pictures of the earthquake

1. Gregory Heisler whiteboards Rudy Giuliani Time Cover

The portrait of Rudy Giuliani for the Time Magazine cover taken by Gregory Heisler is a remarkable image.

This image was taken in 2001 after the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, in which Giuliani played a very visible role, for which he gained great praise and was recognised as Person of the Year by Time magazine.

This image was taken on the top of the Rockefeller Center – 65 stories up. It would be hard enough asking your subject to stand on the edge of the roof that high up, let alone organising the lighting! This image took a week of planning, and was captured in only a handful of frames using an 8×10 camera.

This really is a great portrait, that has had a lot of time, thought and consideration go into it. Gregory Heisler has recorded a video white boarding the details of the shoot, the lighting and some of the challenges that they faced. It is a very interesting video – be sure to also take a look at his website to view more of his work.

2. Tyler Gray – composite for Red Baron beer

Tyler Gray is a photographer who works for Westside Studios in Toronto, Canada. Westside Studios have a blog, on which they regularly post interesting details about their commercial photography.

Tyler has created this composite for a recent advertisement for Red Baron beer, and was kind enough to post some of the information detailing how the composite was created.

I didn’t realise at first that this was a composite image; which is the true test of a composite done well.

3. Brad Trent  – artificial portraits

Editorial photographer Brad Trent has a solid portfolio with some fantastic portraits. He has a unique style which has him in high demand for magazine and editorial work.

Amongst his portfolio, he as an interesting body of work titled Artificial Portraits. This series focuses on the fake reality of photography; most notably the crafted lighting that is used to create portrait images. It’s a look behind the scenes which breaks the fourth wall of normal portraits. He has some great work, and his website is well worth a look.

There is also an interesting article on Strobist.com about Brad Trent and his work, which is a good read.

4. John Keatley – portrait photographer

I really like John Keatley’s work. He primarily shoots portraits and has a knack for creating images that are simple, but intriguing. I follow his blog and like to keep an eye on the work that he is doing, as he continually produces quality work.

I came across this video of John, which gives a good overview of his work and his style. I particularly like this comment in the video:

“…when I go onsite for a shoot, I always ask for the full tour. Usually there is always one place; a basement or store room, that they say ‘you don’t want to go in there, there’s nothing in there, it’s terrible’ – and this is usually the place we end up shooting.”

This is one of the ways that he manages to create unique and interesting images on a consistent basis.

John Keatley – Photographer from Redux or Michael Kasino on Vimeo.

5. Dan Winters interview on The F STOP

The F STOP has published an interesting interview with Dan Winters on their blog. It talks about a recent project for wired magazine shooting Will Ferrell, as well as his other work.

Dan Winters is an iconic photographer, who has an incredible body of work. He is based out of Austin, Texas – but seems to be called on to photograph all over the place. Similar to John Keatley, Dan is very good at reducing an image to just the essential components. Everything in the image is included for a specific reason. Dan describes his work as:

Very studied, meticulously-composed pictures. Frames within frames, really compressed lighting. I was trying to keep it simple. I was trying to make things that seemed a little bit more timeless or lasting but odd at the same time. There’s also a specific emotional range that I like to work with. I find when people get quiet and reflective, there’s a catharsis that can take place. The viewer doesn’t feel intimidated. If the subjects eyes are averted, rather than making direct contact, I believe the viewer feels more comfortable looking at that person and studying them and feeling, not necessarily voyeuristic, but not feeling shy or reluctant to scrutinize the subjects physical self.

Dan also makes this following comment regarding the current rush by photographers to embrace the convergence of still and motion. Still photography stands apart from motion because it engages the viewer in a different way:

Historically whenever new technology comes around, people scramble trying to figure out how it’s going to be used. For so many years, still photographs have been in magazines. The still photograph works for a reason. The viewers ability to ponder and scrutinize a moment can only exist in a still image. The photograph of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima is a perfect example. There’s also film content of that identical event, where the army photographer was literally standing right next to Joe Rosenthal filming the event, but it doesn’t have nearly the same impact as Rosenthal’s still image.

Head over to Dan Winters website and take a look around, he has a massive amount of work, which is all of a very high quality – something to definitely take inspiration from.

Recently I assisted my partner Sharon Blance with a photo-shoot to create promotional dance images for Jess, who is a swing dancer.

The photo-shoot was really fun and Sharon produced some amazing images – you can see all the final images over on her blog.

On her blog, she has included extra information about the purpose of the photo-shoot and the specific goals that needed to be achieved with the final images – it is well worth a read.

Getting a sneak peek

During the photo-shoot I filmed a bunch of BTS footage to capture details about the setup and how Sharon interacts with the dancers to achieve a really polished end result.

In my opinion, having the right gear and knowing how to setup the lights and use the gear is only a small part of what is needed to create amazing photography.

What is most important is knowing what you want to achieve, and being able to work with and interact with your subject to achieve the end result. You can get some great insights into how Sharon works in the video.

The video itself was shot on a completely low budget. I used a Canon IXUS point and shoot to capture the footage, and combined this with a wheeled trolley for some smooth trolley-dolly effect (patent pending). There is mostly regular footage with some time lapse thrown in for good measure. The video, I am ashamed to admit, was cut together in Windows Movie maker – but it was good enough for what we needed.

View the video below, and be sure to head over and take a look at Sharon’s website.

Sharon Blance: Behind the Scenes – Dance Photography from Sharon Blance Image Workshop on Vimeo.

The HD video below was shot and edited entirely on the new iPhone 4. The video also includes some behind the scenes footage so that you can see how they did it.

I was impressed with the professional result that they achieved. Why is it so good – is it because it is shot with high definition video? Not really. It works because it has a good story, good acting and an emotive score. But the thing that makes it looks professional – and sets it apart from the video that you shot on your iPhone – is that they handled the equipment professionally – using dollies, panning and interesting camera perspectives that give the video that polished professional edge.

Take a look for yourself and see what you think.

“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film – UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.