Chase Jarvis Blog

Fad? How About A Superfad.

2008-07-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

What's bigger and better than a fad? How bout a Superfad.

Superfad is a brand-driven design and live action production company based in Seattle, LA, NYC, and London. I recently had the opportunity to work with these guys, and it was dreamy. [Disclosure: we've become friends!] Unlike so many motion houses with a design bent, they are totally committed to creativity.

Anyway, on the heels of my post from a while ago, Photographer As Director, I've got an impulse keep the discussion about moving-pictures alive.

This motion piece of theirs for PS3 is insanely creative:

3 more of their pieces (for Pioneer, Target, X-Games) including some of the best live action (director speak for real moving pictures shot with a moving picture camera) integrated with graphics I've seen to date after the jump. Click the 'continue reading' link below ...
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Depending on your RSS reader, you may need to click here to see the videos.

Hasselblad Launches 50 Megapixel H3DII-50 Monster

2008-07-08T02:55:00.000-07:00

Hasselblad today announced a whopping new camera, the H3D11-50. That's right, they've done it again. 50 megapixels of goodness this time around, creating a 300MB file with each click of the shutter. Whoa! Further details after the jump, including a generous trade in option on your H3DII-39. Click the 'continue reading' link below ...
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They're again boasting the world's largest sensor, a Kodak product that comes in at a doozie of a 36x48mm hunk of love. Twice the size of the current largest dSLR. Other features I think are noteworthy:

-Shoot to CF card or Image Bank 2 hard drive.
-Performance up to 800 ISO.
-New Hassie software, called Phocus, replaces their old stuff.
-They'll let you upgrade from the H3DII-39 to the 50 megapixel monster for simply the difference in cost.
-Expect October availability.

[For the full announcement, visit the Hasselblad website.]
[To download the Hasselblad H3DII-50 product sheet, click here.]
[Follow this link to learn more about their new software, called Hasselblad Phocus.]
[If you're a big spender then click here and just order one.]

My Photography Mistakes #2496

2008-07-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

I've made so many mistakes in my career. Lacking backup gear, forcing pictures, forgetting to reformat the card, crushing hard drives, etc etc. This list is long.

But in the past several years I made one mistake far too many times, and it was this: not leaving enough time, reminding the client to leave enough budget, or directing the proper energy toward the post production of my pictures. I learned my lesson finally in the last year or two, but it took too long. If you're in that rut, snap out of it. Sure, nothing can replace a great photo outta the camera as a starting place, genius, luck, whatever, but do yourself the favor of building post production mojo into your workflow properly.

And btw, make sure you're not still in the leftover handful of photographers whining about "having to process your own images." Instead, remind yourself what a great opportunity it is to put another personal layer into your pictures. Click the 'continue reading' link below for the full post/comments...
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Photo Geek Rap Video: 101 Photoshop Tips

2008-06-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember Deke McClelland, the Photoshop guru who put out video How To Use Scanned Money in Photoshop a couple years ago. Well his nerdness is back, and he's rapping about Photoshop in this 5-minute video. There's actually a ton of great stuff in there. In one viewing I nabbed a couple new tricks and rekindled a handful of oldies I had forgotten. Second viewing, that doubled. Watch it again. You know you want to... Want a transcribed list of all 101 tips, links to Deke's blog, a hot video host site, and a pizza? It's all there, after the jump. - Click the 'continue reading' link below ...
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OK, so there's no pizza. But there is a link to my good friends at CreativeTechs who have so graciously played/paused the vid a million times and transcribed the list for you. There's a link to Deke's blog here (which looks to be ramping up again), and try this on for size: Blip.tv. I haven't been paying much attention until now--this site does a really nice job with its vids. Embeddable, no branding, clean playback, and... downloadable. Nice.

Hot Photo Book: "Drive" by Andrew Bush

2008-06-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Driving and reading go together like peaches and motor oil. This is just one picture from Andrew Bush's new book, Drive. According to Andrew, it's a book of "Photographs made while traveling 50 to 70 mph in Los Angeles and other parts of the Southwestern United States." My 5 favorite pictures and a link to buy the book after the jump. - click the 'continue reading' link below ...

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My favs:

This woman is clearly upset.

These guys are clearly on their way to make an adult film.

Hard working. Cool car. Always good to wear head protection. Patricia apparently did not.

Chauffeured.

El Capitan, looks kind of like the dog above.

Now the important details... You can buy the book here Hurry up though, I already bought two. (Seriously.) And you can see all the shots from the book here.

Mad props to Rachel over at Shoot the Blog for the tip on this book. If you're looking for the most prolific photography blog going right now, pay her a visit. She's a machine (and she's really nice)!

POV Photography On Steroids

2008-06-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I've been a playful advocate of POV (Point-Of-View) photography. Years and years ago, I did this with my custom POV rig:

Hell, we all did it.

Then, it got more complicated. I was having fun and I sync'd my camera with a camera strapped to the athlete, so you'd get one moment from two perspectives. I have a ton of these, but generally the result is pretty interesting and looks this:

Then, after doing that commercially for a few folks, I tried to share what I had learned and released this video called Chase Jarvis TECH: POV Photography to illustrate all the parts and pieces, concepts, how to fire a remote camera, etc.

Now, sure, it's been big in movies and photography for a good long spell, but if you're interested to find out from Nike just how far POV has really come, click 'continue reading' below...
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Let's just say it's come a LONG way... Imagine how long this would take to make!? Brilliant piece of art from a technical perspective (for us photo/director geeks) Brilliant advertising piece as well. For those of us who grew up playing soccer there's a great emotional tug here and for those who didn't - it's just plain cool.

Art and Mischief

2008-06-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

If you're a high-falutin' artist or a photo-geek and you're up for some mischief, consider making this flash canon called "The Fulgerator" to mess with the photos of others... Click continue reading for a video of the sophisticated prank in action and a link to the original post.
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Apparently, it's adapted from a flash and an old SLR, it senses the flash of someone's camera, and then quickly illuminates itself, projecting images or text onto the object that is being snapped by the other unsuspecting photographer:

[Update: Wired Mag blog picked this up and did a nice job with the details. Let's hope the guy gets rich!]

[Thanks James, via the great post at Gizmodo]

Simplicity Is King

2008-06-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's my experience that simple is powerful. Whether considering art, design, or whatever, simplicity is KING. This 57 second video is a fun-but-eloquent example of what I mean:

Sure the artistic concept can be high and mighty, but by all means, when considering your next picture, let the visual be simple.

- click the 'continue reading' link below for comments...
[Thanks to the good peeps at Signal vs. Noise the tip on this great vid!]

Inspired By_Challenged By: The Creative Gap

2008-06-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

I recently received the email below:

"Your pictures are stunning. Mine are not. Not trying to oversimplify this, but how on earth do you do what you do with a camera? I desperately want to move my creativity forward, but it won't seem to budge."

OK, first thing's first: Over time I've challenged myself, struggled, and worked hard and failed, and sucked a-plenty. You already know this. As artists, we all do. Sometimes the inspiration or the execution is lacking, or worse, sometimes both are completely void. On the other hand, we all also make really great stuff sometimes. That's the crack. The buzz. It's what keeps us getting out of bed in the morning.

Second thing: The answer to the question above lies in what I call 'the creative gap.' A description of the creative gap, how to deal with it, and a video after the jump--click the 'continue reading' link below...

The term 'creative gap' is a way of describing the difference between what we as artists can visualize ourselves creating and what we actually create. Sometimes we nail it and the gap is nil. Other times, as you might imagine, there's a huge disparity and the gap is wide. Whether we lack vision, skills, timing, whatever - it can get frustrating to set out to create a masterpiece, and settling for a different kind of piece, if you know what I mean. You envision it like an Edward Weston, but what you get is more like an Edward Scissorhands.

But there is a clear answer to closing this gap and it's a simple one: Do MORE Work.

I discovered this in the early beginnings of my career, and I still remind myself of it to this day. Mastery is rarely innate. It requires a repetition of the fundamentals - creatively, technically, etc - you name it. It's through exploring that creative process over and over that we get stronger and better.

On the surface it might seem to some like we'd be pandering to luck, as in "take enough pictures and you're bound to get one good one", but that's crap. It really goes way beyond that. Get out there and make more pictures, and get your hands dirty, again and again, and you will close that gap over time. Interstingly, I find that it's also a way to discover your own style. You take enough pictures and you'll start to see a similarity in your vision. This understanding continues to help me tremendously as an artist.

Want to leave you with this little tidbit from Ira Glass. I'm not a big This American Life fan, but I recently stumbled across this video (via Todd's great blog over at GalleryHopper.org) where Ira describes precisely what I mean. It's through repetition and pushing on that almost all artists succeed.

Chase Jarvis SHORTS: Pimped Photography Van

2008-06-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Heading into a recent commercial job in San Diego, we were a little underpowered. Our staff Digital Asset Management guru, Dartanyon, was tied to the studio on some other business and as a result we needed some more DAM muscle on the road--and quick! A phone call later, our problem was solved...

Enter stage right: The Digital Capture Systems pimped-out digital photography uber-van. Enter stage left: a new video series titled Chase Jarvis SHORTS, where I'll share some short, behind-the-scenes and off-the-wall tidbit videos that might be of interest. To get photos and the details about this cool pimped-out photography van, click the 'continue reading' link below...

Digital Capture Systems is: a couple of burly MacPros, a handful of big ol' 30" displays, a whole bunch of redundant storage, a ton of tech widgets and wingdings, a savvy guy who graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography (Carson) to run the ones and zeros, and a totally pimped out, enviro-friendly custom Dodge Sprinter van to haul it all. Not only did the van help with our digital assets, it also helped out with wardrobe and gave us on location editing just minutes after we nailed a particular shot. I applaud these Digital Capture Systems guys on their uber-van concept, and I love the business they've built around it. They did a great job on our gig, and I chatted with my friend Vince LaForet who just used them as well, and he said everything went really well. Here are a few behind-the-scenes snapshots from our week working with them:

Several of us jammed in there reviewing files from one of the days.

Late night review in the van.

Owner Carson Blume working on his laptop on the roof.

Carson working.

Van stocked with the wardrobe for the evening. I swear that little van can hold a TON of stuff!

Seems like every major city should have one of these things!

Lastly, if you like this video, click around over here ---->> in the margin to find more interesting vids. And stay tuned for lots more Chase Jarvis: SHORTS coming soon.

[Double lastly, depending on your RSS reader, you might need to check out video and photos here.]

The Caffeine Is Kicking In

2008-06-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

So I've been mostly off caffeine for about 2 years now. Surely I dig into that go-fast java juice every once in a while when I "need" a kick in the arse, but mostly I'm off it.

Until today that is... Yowza. You'll have to join me in starting off our week with some inspirational speedlinks. Portfolio reviews, iPhone tips, graffiti art, anti-graffit art, staying home with your kids, and, of course, terrorists.

It's ala carte. Choose one or many - there's something for everyone. Click the 'continue reading' link below ...

For the Students: Review Santa Fe

Review Santa Fe is a two-day conference for photographers who have created a significant project or series and are seeking wider recognition. It's THE place to get your work reviewed. It wrapped up last week in, duh, Santa Fe. You should go next year. It's been written about broadly by Brian Ulrich, Alec Soth, Rob's done a nice job with the details over at A Photo Editor, and my favorite take (with a grain of salt and a sense of humor) Thomas Broening (way to go, man... enjoying your blog).

For the Techies: Embed iPhone-Friendly Videos (of Ninjas)

In honor of the 3G iPhones, here's a great, simple little tip for getting your site vids to look nice on everybody's iPhone. Thanks Creative Techs for using Ninjas as your test piece ;)

For the Know it Alls: Reverse Graffiti
Bet you haven't seen this before. This guy cleans walls to create his art. Applause abound - cool stuff.

For the Paranoid: Photographers as Terrorists
Read what the Guardian has to say about this latest trend to profile photographers as terrorists.

For the Home-Bodies and Gift-Givers: America at Home Book

DIYPhotography.net is really going the extra mile to share info about this interesting concept of America at Home. Professional shooters images, mixed with amateur snapshots, and your shot on the cover. Interesting concept.

For the Hard Core Readers Willing to Give Props Where Props Are Due: Stop Motion Graffiti Vid
All the regulars here know I'm a sucker for street art/graffiti/Banksy/The Wooster Colective, etc. Google analytics tells me you loved the Improve Everywhere piece, so here's another one that will blow your socks off. Totally arresting video. Consider the sheer time and energy this would take:

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
Thanks Boing Boing for this one.

Opening photo by Kelly Flynn - from her Review Santa Fe entry.

RWAV_6 REVEALED: Dubai, NYC, Tokyo

2008-06-10T00:17:00.000-07:00

Tokyo. Enjoy my stay with this cap? Wha?

Well, well, well. The detectives amongst us continue to blow the doors of the Room With(Out) A View series. Indeed, the most recent RWAV "trifecta" was tougher than most, but the correct answers rolled in... You correctly guessed: Dubai's not-so-fancy Holiday Inn Express was the photo out the window facing the sandy parking lot; NYC was the Soho Grand facing the building under construction; and that shot out the wire-glass window was from the Ginza district in the quaint little village you may have heard of called Tokyo.

Lots more photos, links to the winners, a video of The Jackanory after one too many, and plenty of other behind the scenes snapshots from my time on the road after the jump - click the 'continue reading' link below ...

This is the Dubai airport at 2am. Crazy busy. Crazy place.

Some of the crew from Dubai present in this photo: Joe McNally, Drew Gardner, Robin Nichols, Manus van Dyk, Peter Burian, Charlie Borland, a sliver of Bobbi Lane, Kate, Scott, and of course, the Strobist - Mr. David Hobby.

Speaking of my good friend Strobist - he's just freakin' everywhere! Here pictured (in Dubai) is one of his private vans. Szabist is the Arabic pronunciation of Strobist... There's another one just behind this one on the left. He had a whole fleet of them all logo'd up just for the GPP event.

Here's a quick grab of my group from the Prep. Shoot. Wrap! gig. You guys were amazing!

Teamwork.

Pals Michael Costuros and Evan Nisselson at a NYPH afterparty. Rooftop deck with amazing view of Manhattan courtesy of the legendary David Allan Harvey.

Finally got to meet up with the wise and inimitable Herr Colberg from Conscientious.

Found it a mild pain in the ass that Christina Aguilera was staying at the same hotel as I was this week. Paparazzi everywhere, everyday. Argh.

Before the rain began in Tokyo.

During the rain in Tokyo.

And finally, the toilet controls in Tokyo equal those on the Millennium Falcon.

And finally - this is the treat. Thanks for sticking with me. Since you made it all the way down here, do yourself a favor and check out the photography of some of the folks who pinpointed my location. There is some nice stuff in here from Tim Kemple, James Jones, and Nicholas Critelli. Go visit their sites. Grow the photography industry. They're the same people who'll visit yours in the next RWAV.

And very lastly, a reminder if you're at all interested in these snap-shot-y documentations of our travels and shoots, I’ll invite you to check out a recent addition to this blog’s behind the scenes stuff: Our Flickr pool called Chase Jarvis Crew Shots. We'll be uploading to this constantly - outtakes from my camera, our personal point and shoot's, whatever.

Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW_6, "The Trifecta"

2008-06-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Alert all the detectives. I haven't done one of these low-brow things in a while, even amidst the requests...so here we go. Here's another doozie of an RWAV. Only this one's a little different. I'm not asking you to guess just one Room With(out) A View, but rather guess my location in my last three hotels at one go. Hence, "the Trifecta". You know the game - props, a bunch of new visitors to your site, and perhaps some special treats to those that most accurately nail me on the most locations. BTW, don't be scared by the task, there's hints all over the web. - click the 'continue reading' link below for photos from all three rooms...

Location 1

Location 2

Location 3

Don't forget to include your url along with your guess down in the comments below if you think you're onto me, and if you win or maybe even get close, I'll send a pipeline of new visitors to your site. I'll probably have a pretty quick turn around on this one, since I've got a lot of other new content stacking up, so get out your magnifying glass and your Google maps and get going.

...if you're not familiar with this series highlighting some of my time on the road, see other Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW's, below. Behind the scenes snapshot to follow when I reveal the locales:

[Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW]
[RWAW REVEALED: Paris, Rue Birague]
[Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW_2]
[RWAW REVEALED_2: Palm Springs, CA (Viceroy Hotel)]
[Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW_3]
[RWAW REVEALED_3: New York City (Hudson Hotel)]
[Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW_4]
[RWAV_4 REVEALED: Mazama, Washington (Freestone Inn)]
[Chase Jarvis: ROOM WITH(OUT) A VIEW_5]
[RWAV_5 REVEALED: San Diego (Sunset Cliffs)]

[Depending on your RSS reader, you may need to go here for the photos.]

We Are Independant, Yet We Are Somehow The Same

2008-05-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

Why does so much of our work look so much alike, even when we strive for it to look so different?

Given yesterday's discussion I had to investigate. In less than 5 minutes last night, for no apparent reason, I was able to find about 20 of my images that look, feel, appear, strangely similar to nearly 20 images in the 2008 PDN Photo Annual. Thus, even in the face of working on new, experimental stuff, we are somehow the same. - click the 'continue reading' link to see examples of what I mean after the jump -

Here's some quick examples - grabbed in just a couple minutes from my collection and compared loosely to other images in the magazine... No Photoshop, just a quick grab of what was easy and near...here's a handful:

Raymond Meier

Chase Jarvis - shot thru some cascading water just 3 weeks ago in Dubai.

Yours Truly.

Gary Land

Steve Bloom

Me

Mine

Will Van Overbeek

and even

Christopher Weidlich

Remember - all these in the same single issue of a magazine.

Chase Jarvis

Joao Canziani

Still the same issue...

And here's a quickie of two other photogs from the same issue;

Tony Law

Stephen Wilkes

And the list goes on...

Strangely, sadly, beautifully, whatever. As much as we all work to push outside the box, we are all--in so many ways--inextricably tied to one another in our commercial work, our fine art work, our time, our editors, our websites, our contests.

As much as we hate this, we must admit it. Are we all trite? Hacks? Are we all visionless? No. Certainly not. We’re all human, I suppose. As unique and disparate artists as we all are or all at least try to be, there must be some pudding, or at least some social fabric in us all, that is very much the same--whether we like it or not.

[By the way, if this theme is interesting to you, go watch Errol Morris’ documentary film Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. One of my personal favorites.]

Need To Learn Lighting? Strobist DVD.

2008-05-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Photographers: If you want/need to learn how to light, my good buddy David Hobby, aka Strobist, guru of all things off camera and inexpensive, has delivered the goods. Get 20 years experience, all the tricks and insights, minus all the drama in one box set of--count 'em...8 (eight!)-- DVDs for just $139. Seriously! He's damn near giving the things away. Between you and me, I just got off the phone with him and they're running out...so if'n you want yours, now's the time to order. He promises choosing content over production value, and I believe him.

BTW, this isn't just for the amateurs in the audience. You know guys like McNally are devouring this stuff...practically snorting David's knowledge. And even if my other hipster friends like Jackanory , Vincent LaForet, and Alec Soth don't advertise that they're staying up all night watching this sucker in their pajamas, but they are. They'll never admit it, but they are. Trust me. Slo mo' and all.

Read David's post about the production of this box set here. Order directly from Midwest Photo. - click the 'continue reading' link below ...

Doing Stuff First. Or Not.

2008-05-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

We've all had it happen, professionals, amateurs, beginning photogs alike. You think you have a great idea...gonna go shoot this cool new concept...then whammo. You see it done by somebody else. You can have more respect for it done well and less for it done poorly, but it's the idea that counts. And "they" beat you to it.

Know what I say about that stuff? Get used to it.

FWIW, (and if it makes anybody out there feel any better - god knows I need to hear "same here" from some of you...), this happens to me all the time. All my little scribbles and journal notes and lists of ideas, gone poof in an instant.

One such occasion for me--a brilliant idea I had many years ago but failed to execute on--goes something like this...(click the 'continue reading' link below)

It's the idea to shoot celebrity look-alikes in somewhat (or rather 'very') compromising situations, and do so in a waaaaay underproduced manner, such as to mimic a bad paparazzi shot. Just think of the fun you could have, I thought. My mind went nuts... And (gasp!) think of the trouble you could get in! Think of the social commentary, and the comment about paparazzi that it would make, and hell, even the commercial applications! And...

Well, rest assured it's been done, and done well by Alison Jackson, this image and opener, above. The work is fantastic - she takes beyond where I would have. And she's got herself a great new book to boast for it as well, thanks to those wonderful purveyors of the widest range of hipster coffee table books on the planet, Taschen. (Check out their site or their brick and mortar at 107 Greene Street in NYC. Buy the book here. (BTW, if you're out there listening, the cover design for Jackson's book is not good...but don't judge a book by it's cover.) To get a flavor for the images she's compiled since she started shooting this stuff in 1999, visit her mock celebrity news site, AJ News. The concept was also done this year by Shaul Schwarz for Getty. I personally prefer Ms. Jackson's take, but that's just me.

So three morals: 1) Go check out Jackson's new book; 2) People are going to beat you to ideas. Get used to it and do not lament it. Work through/beyond it; 3) Go shoot that winning concept that is in your head TODAY. I guarantee that somebody else has the same idea and they're planning their shoot right now. Remember: Ideas? Worth very little. Actions on those ideas? Priceless.

[Worthy side note is that both shooters of this concept mentioned above had their work on this topic featured in the 2008 PDN Photo Annual. Congrats Alison and Shaul. Check out the 2008 PDN Photo Annual gallery here. Look for killer work by John Offenbach, Raymond Meier, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Justin Mott, and others. Or to learn about the two categories that I somehow snagged (lied, cheated, stole, bribed my way into winning?) click the shameless press link here.]

Happy Friday: Improv Everywhere

2008-05-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Feels great to be home after a long jaunt on the road. That said, I'm tuning out for the weekend for some R&R and leaving you with something fun and clever. It's been out for a long time, but I'm a sucker for this stuff. Happy Friday!

Chris Jordan's Art Is Really Good

2008-05-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Photo Copyright Chris Jordan.

Given that last week in the USA was "National Bike to Work Week", and given that I basically did the opposite of biking to work by flying massive jets all over the world, I feel more than compelled to steer our attention to the environment for a moment. Enter: Chris Jordan. I don't know this man, but I need to meet him in the next 5 minutes. Chris Jordan makes great art. Some of it is environmental in nature, other parts seem to address mass culture and consumerism in general. From his artist statement:

Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits...

More work, links to Chris' most recent projects and other things that get me really excited about his work, after the jump. Click the 'continue reading' link below...
This is powerful stuff, but I can't do it justice here on this blog. It's best represented by this link to his site. Please visit it now, and scroll all the way down. You'll be VERY impressed. Evokes plenty of Gursky thoughts in me as well...and I love Gursky.

Pulled back shot... Copyright Chris Jordan.

Detail of same shot... Copyright Chris Jordan.

And I guess Chris has been getting lots of press, but I somehow missed it. I got this tip from my awesome pals at the Build Blog.

All Hands On Deck: Oppose Senate Orphan Works

2008-05-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

While positioning on the the earlier OW bill was quite divided (earlier post + comments), looks like the Senate version of the Orphan Works bill gets huge thumbs down from all photography groups, as far as I can tell. I encourage you to take 5 minutes and follow instructions from the ASMP and APA on how to be heard. Sample letters and instructions after the jump - click the 'continue reading' link below:

The ASMP wants you to treat the Senate Orphan Works bill like this:

Re: S.2913, the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008

Dear Member:

On May 14, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved some revisions to its version of an Orphan Works amendment. You can see the full text of the bill, as revised, here. In spite of ASMP’s efforts, the bill does not provide even the minimum protections that ASMP considers necessary for photographers, and it is now time for the members to make their voices heard in the Senate.

We urge you to write to your Senators as soon as possible. You can find the name and contact information for your two Senators here. (After you have selected your state, your Senators will be the first two names in the list.) You can find a letter that you can copy and paste, print on your letterhead and fax to your Senators, here. Please feel free to change the wording as you wish.

It will take you only a few minutes to create and send these letters, but they will be some of the best used minutes of your career.

Thank you for your support in this important matter.

Victor Perlman
General Counsel
American Society of Media Photographers

and then offers this follow-up:

Dear ASMP Member,

The Call to action sent earlier to write your Senator contained a link to a sample letter. We have pasted the sample below for you to use as a template. It is very important that you make the specific request of your Senator that they vote “no” unless it includes specific language.

Please be sure you include the following language, “I urge you to oppose this bill unless and until it is amended to contain at least the minimum provisions that are critical to protect photographers, including but not limited to a notice of use that must be filed before the use is made, upon penalty of losing eligibility to claim orphan work status for failure to file the notice; an archive of the notices, to be maintained by the Copyright Office or an approved third party; and other protections that appear in the current (May 15, 2008) language of H.R. 5889.”

Thank you.

The full sample letter is posted below.

Re: S.2913 the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008

Dear Senator ________________________________:

I am one of your constituents, a professional photographer, and a member of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). It is crucial to my professional livelihood that you oppose this bill in its current form. If this bill’s current language becomes law, it would permit, and even encourage, wide-scale infringements of my copyrighted photographs while depriving me of many of the protections currently available to me under the Copyright Act, including the right to ask the courts to award statutory damages and attorneys’ fees. In the publication world, the reality is that most photographs will easily become considered orphaned, depriving me of a significant part of my much needed income.

I urge you to oppose this bill unless and until it is amended to contain at least the minimum provisions that are critical to protect photographers, including but not limited to a notice of use that must be filed before the use is made, upon penalty of losing eligibility to claim orphan work status for failure to file the notice; an archive of the notices, to be maintained by the Copyright Office or an approved third party; and other protections that appear in the current (May 15, 2008) language of H.R. 5889.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide you with any additional information. Thank you for your time. I hope that you will take the necessary actions to protect my interests and prevent the passage of this bill until it is amended to be fair and reasonable to all parties.

Respectfully yours, (your name)

The APA's statement is similar to ASMP on The Senate version of the bill, but not on the House version. If you recall they oppose both Senate and House bills. The APA have a great resource page here.

Why wait? Contact your Senator today! 5 minutes of your time is a necessary investment.

New ChaseJarvis.com

2008-05-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this in your browser, then you already know. If instead you're an RSS reader, then drop everything and come check out the new site. Click around and get some dirt under your fingernails - tell me what you think.

Also, bare with me as we'll be tweaking things here and there over the next week or two until we get it where we want it. Generally speaking, I'm really happy with my new skin. It's clean. It's comfortable. You'll also notice a lot of new work. This is the tip of the iceberg too - a lot more of that to come, a lot of additions and deletions to come, as well as some in depth commentary/discussion about it. Feedback on any and all of this is encouraged and appreciated.

Thanks to everybody back at the studio for their hard work in getting this sucker live, especially with all the road time we've had lately. Big thanks also goes out to our friends at liveBooks for doing what they do. There's no question they've got he best damn flash algorithm on planet earth for delivering nice big images quickly and cleanly.

Update: Huge thanks to everyone who is cruising the site and providing targeted feedback and words of encouragement. We've been addressing your thoughts and making progress. I'm grateful for all your wise eyeballs. Please keep sharing!

Some Experimental Work: Celebrity, Maps, and Sensor Bloom

2008-05-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share some experimental work I shot recently that was inspired loosely by the notion of celebrity, the video Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (directed by the very talented Patrick Daughters), and sensor bloom as art.

For the right brainers amongst us, consider this stuff on the merits of the peculiar, cold, distanced aesthetic united with the white-hot lights. For the left brainers, consider what's happening with the camera sensor (blooming) to achieve these images and how the linking of multiple blooms actually works. More examples after the jump - click the 'continue reading' link below ...

All these jpgs have just been run very quickly thru Aperture and have not been retouched in Photoshop at all (so don't pay attention to those pesky little blemishes). They're by no means finished files, just conceptual evaluations:

Inspired By Those Closest To Us

2008-05-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

When I think of creative inspiration, many people come to mind. People and their journeys and their struggles and their victories.

Just so happens that one such person is my Mom. As of today she's been cancer-free for 10 years. Way to go Mom - I'm so inspired and sooooo thankful.

Can't wait to pop some Champagne when I get back in town!

.

Orphan Works : Damage Control

2008-05-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

This Orphan Works drama has been a thorn in our sides for quite some time. By all accounts, there is a need for some legislation that addresses the situation that arises when the owner of a copyright protected work cannot be identified and located. It's just that everything I've seen, read, and otherwise researched on the topic--from the perspective of photographers--has found all such previously proposed legislation unsatisfactory. Well hold your horses. A new bill has just been born in the House and the Senate. No one is shouting 'victory' by any means--not even close--but the ASMP thinks we've done all we can within reason. If you ask me, it's just called damage control - and they might just be onto something. From their website:

As with any legislation, one could always wish for more favorable terms. Realistically, though, the House bill is about as good as photographers are ever going to get. If the bill is not passed this year, it will return in the next session of Congress, when at least one of the crucial subcommittees will be under different leadership. Based on the track records of the legislators who are in line for leadership, it is almost certain that they will write legislation that is far less friendly to copyright owners than the current leadership.

Read the full ASMP take on this topic here. As you might imagine, there are some vocal opposers. John Harrington is not happy. Nor is The Illustrators Partnership. SAA also miffed, here.

Me? I'm idealistic as hell, but I'm siding with the ASMP on this one. As someone whose got a record of standing up for this stuff, even having gone toe to toe on stage with the nice folks at the Copyright Office who supported earlier (read: really crappy) drafts of the legislation (Pro Photo Summit hosts, are you out there? Any chance of posting the video of that panel? Where is that content hiding?) I never thought I'd say this, but my gut is that the landscape is changing too fast. I think there is also a lot of misinformation out there on this... Suffice it to say, I'm no talking head and I'm certainly no lawyer, but don't see this getting much better than it is in this draft. It's sad and it pains me to say it, but I think it might just be true.

Update: if you want the bigger picture to this post, consider reading the handful of comments below - click the 'continue reading' link below ...
and spending some additional time reading on this topic elsewhere online. The issue is very charged, as you will see. I'm not advocating the communication style of some of these commenters, but instead trying to highlight the complexity, the level of seriousness, and the sense of urgency for everyone involved.

Update #2: As there is a lot of rhetoric out there about the opposition positions on the House version of the bill, the ASMP has issued an FAQ page to address their pro position reasoning, as well as some podcasts. I encourage you to read up about all this stuff -- both pro and con positions - in order to make the most informed decision possible. Links to both sides of this argument appear in this post and in the comments, and can also be found with a quick search. Check em out.

Update #3: Some new posts from the ASMP aimed to answer some questions:
FAQ — http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/FAQ_for_OW.php
Podcasts — http://www.asmp.org/audio/index.php
Orphan Works updates — http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/orphan_update.php

Surreal Dubai And A Hefty Buzz

2008-04-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

No 3D modeling, no tilt and shift, no tricks that I can detect. Crazy part about this photo is that those skyscrapers sticking out of the clouds are huge, towering 70+ stories tall each. Even crazier is that this image (not mine) is shot, not from a plane or chopper, but from another building! This image is shot from the world's tallest building which happens to be just down the road from where I'm currently working. I'm in Dubai, UAE.

Speaking of crazy, I've got a CRAZY internal body clock going right now. My head feels like it's full of the same puffy clouds as the ones in the photo. I literally just hallucinated. Completely sober, I just attempted brushing my teeth with the travel case still on my tooth brush - got the thing all the way to my mouth with toothpaste on the outside of the case and everything. I need to get some sleep. Although I'm totally brain dead, a good sleep deprivation buzz is a really GOOD time. Trust me on this one. Read more after the jump - click the 'continue reading' link below ...

If you're interested in replicating said buzz, no problem, it's easy. Here's how: Spend 12 long days working on the road for back to back to back to back trips to San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, and back to Seattle. Take 48 hours of respite and then throw in a quickie to Cincinnati, a Washington DC leg, and a London jaunt for good measure. For icing on the cake take that 777 trek out to the quaint little town here in the Middle East called Dubai. Stay up late and get up early for a couple of days, and bingo, you're there. Glad I don't trouble you with too many RWAV's, aren't you?

BTW, I'll spare you the details of what's going on here in Dubai, and instead steer you toward a handful of great photographer friends that blog who are already here and posting. Drop in on Chromasia, Joe McNally, Strobist, and Ben Willmore - they'll tell you all you need to know about Gulf Photo Plus.
--

[Thanks to my new good friend and recently appointed GPP head honcho Mohamed Somji for sending me this image. He doesn't know the creator of this image, nor do I - and our research on line came up empty handed. This is just one of those shots that's getting circulated around these parts via email. FWIW, I'd love to find whomever shot it. If it's you, please confess ;)]

Dear Light Meter: You're Dead To Me

2008-04-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

In a recent post, reader Clay posed the following question in the comment section:

Do you ever use a light meter? If so, what are the situations?

It's a good, fair and simple question, so I'll begin by answering it: Clay, not only don't I use a light meter, but it's been so long since I used one that--until you reminded me--I had nearly forgotten that they ever existed. Seriously.

Here's why they're less relevant than ever before: when you combine that LCD on the back of your digital camera with your brain you've got a better tool than you'd ever get from a hand held Star-Trek-looking thingie that spits out some strange, relational, numeric code. Am I right? Just take 5 pictures in as many seconds with a few adjustments here and there, and you've figured out where you need to be. Skip reading the ambient light (what a meter does), and just snap off a few pictures. Look at the back of your camera. Tweak your exposure to see what you want to see, and how you want to see it, right there on the back of your camera. Bingo.

Okay, okay. Before the haters mount their attack, I'm just getting your goat. Read more after the jump - click the 'continue reading' link below ...

Clay's question is a fine one, (and the above accurately characterizes how I nail down my exposure) but I'm really just using it as a springboard to get back at a larger point I've been hammering a lot lately: Sure, it's incredibly valuable to know the ins and outs of the technical side of photography. I'm a huge advocate of that and I've paid my dues. You should too. But understanding the fundamentals of light and the mechanics of a camera and all the techno babble that's all the rage online these days can only get you so far.

DO use the back of your camera, and don't feel bad about it. Hell, go ahead and use a light meter and a 4x5 if you must - see if I care. Read reviews. Nerd out on gear. Whatever floats your boat.

But one thing is for sure: don't ever confuse all the silly little gadgets and the silly little numbers with what it means to simply and eloquently capture a moment, a scene, or the essence of a human emotion - whatever it is that truly inspires you. You'll be much better off for it, I promise.