Rated: R

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Release Date: 06-Nov-2009

Nudity: Some quick boobs. 

One Sentence: It felt like a bad Coen Brothers movie. 

Quarky characters, an odd story, an attempted message and George Clooney.  Today when I looked on IMDB I was surprised to see The Men Who Stare At Goats was not directed or written by The Coen Brothers.  Everything that happened in this movie felt just like one of their movies, except that most Coen Brothers movies are good, and I really didn't like The Men Who Stares At Goats.  

I think this movie was intended to be funny, while delivering a world message to the audience.  Instead it was slow, lacking anything interesting, and had a couple of funny jokes involving Star Wars references.  You do not care about these guys and their supposed true story about the army's secret psychic program.  When you open a movie with how unbelievable the story is it is based on, then you expect the movie to be at least interesting, and instead it was just a boring hour and a half story, that wasn't hard to believe or even slightly interesting.

I am not going to recommend this movie at all, anything that you think looks good in this movie you have already seen in the endless promotion that has been going on all over the tv. I don't even think it is a renter.  You can be fine just never seeing it and you can never look back about how you missed a good movie, because it is just not very good.  

Rated: PG-13

Running Time:  98 Minutes

Release Date: 06-Nov-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: The Blair Witch Alien Project.

So in this version there are Aliens, instead of Witches.  The story is mildly convincing.  There are parts that some will consider scary, and the movie overall is an entertaining movie however it pulls some Blair Witch crap that now 10 years later makes you more frustrated than what it intends to do, which I think is cause fear and belief.  Sadly we have become jaded and used to this type of movie and The Fourth Kind does nothing to convince me that it is as real as it claims. 

If you can suspend your disbelief then The Fourth Kind is at least a slightly scary movie that can interest you and make you want to know more about these types of claims.  In this I think it did very well, and regardless of what I thought after the movie it did still make me want to look up some things on the internet.  However it never delivered the amazing scene that will make you talk about it to other people, or the knockout punch that made you a believer.  

There is no reason for you to go to the theater to go see The Fourth Kind, you will do find adding it to your Netflix queue and just waiting for it.  If you were abducted by Aliens however then, this movie might be a little too intense for you.  So for all those out there with those little implants and all the probing that has been done to you, I would highly suggest skipping this one. 

Rated: PG

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Release Date: 23-Oct-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: A mediocre biopic of one of America's most famous heroes.

I will not say that I know a lot about the life and times of Amelia Earhart, so I will not act like this movie is or is not an accurate portrayal of her life.  I don't think however that there is ever an expectation of that.  What we do look for is something about these peoples lives that we would not suspect or know happened.  Those things might be dramatized or overdone, but it at least causes intrest or a new point of view.  Amelia doesn't seem to want to portray any of these things and instead create a movie about the romances of her life, perhaps that was the things that needed to be dramatized but for a woman who has done so much, romance seems to be pretty low on the list. 

Diminished to a woman in love who happened to fly planes and sell her luggage to pay for them, Amelia does nothing to capture the intrigue of the nation that she caused when she made her famous flights.  Instead we are given a forced horrible imitation of Earhart by Hillary Swank and a long drawn out story about her love life while putting her achievements in the world as an aside.  Some shown and the last 15 minutes of the movie finally seems to create the fear and tension that these types of flights would have been like then, but it only ever seems like a small part of the movie and story and rarely are we given the idea that is it something amazing and truly dangerous.  The movie felt like a disservice to Amelia Earhart and the things she did in her life. 

I would not say this movie is bad, I just think it is not the movie I would have expected it to be, and I thought it was a little slow.  I think if you are into biopic's then this one is at least viewable and you would be fine with it at home on your couch.  I do not think you have to go out this weekend to the theater to see it and I think those of you that generally dislike these type's of movies will not think differently about Amelia.  

Rated: PG

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Release Date: 16-Oct-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: I am still covered with emo. 

Well I am surprised to see that the running time of this movie according to IMDB was 94 minutes, becuase the movie I saw felt like 3 hours.  3 Long, rage and whining filled hours.  The unchecked rage and emotion of a 9 year old, blended with a slow boring story, and oozing with a non-stop hipster soundtrack made for a movie that was the complete opposite of the timeless classic book this movie was based on. After getting out of the theater I felt bored, and glad the movie was over.  It didn't provide me with anything that I felt like was innovative, thoughtful or interesting.  All it provided me with was anger and fear with a lot of slow parts in between.  The end of the movie did not resolve any of the issues of the beginning of the movie and I just really disliked it.

I think this could of been the movie I have liked the least this year.  I can't think of another I disliked this much, so I think it goes without saying that I do not recommend this movie for rental or to go see this weekend.  I think this movie is a huge pile of trendy crap that will never be in the same room as the book at which it is named.  

Rated: R

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Release Date: 16-Oct-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: It's like Saw with an Academy Award winner. 

I think this movie didn't have a message, at least I hope it didn't.  A message where the writer or director was trying to make a statement and present it to the audience so we all think about it.  I hope this more was just a movie, an action drama that we are not supposed to think about or care about, because if it had a message, that message has less remorse than the Saw movie franchise.  So let's just pretend this movie doesn't have a message. 

If we go with no message then this movie falls into a slightly tense, interesting drama that most people could go without seeing.  It is in the vein of a lot of these cop/bad guy movies that come along and disappear without as much as a couple of weeks floating around in the box office, before it gets shot to DVD for people to rent and not really comment on either. I would not say it is a bad movie, I just don't think that anyone really is going to care about it, or recommend it to anyone else, including me. It has some slightly interesting "traps" that happen in the movie that made me take a bit of notice, but nothing that would make me say you have to pay to see this movie.  

This movie is about as 3 star as you can get, nothing bad enough to make me tell you to stay away from this movie, nothing good enough for me to tell you to rent or go to the theater to see it.  If you have something for Gerard Butler you would not be disappointed in renting this movie, anyone renting this movie will not be disappointed I don't think, but don't go out of your way to check it out this weekend. 

Rated: R

Running Time: 82 Minutes

DVD Release Date: 06-Oct-2009

Nudity: Some

One Sentence: A direct to DVD release that might be the best horror movie since Scream.

I got to see this movie at Comic-Con, the director and writer, Michael Dougherty came out to talk about it.  This is the guy who made Superman Returns, so I was pretty sure this direct to DVD release was going to be no good.  At the end of the movie as monkeyjenn and I were walking out of the viewing room we both said, that was the best horror movie we had seen in a very long time.  

Trick 'r Treat is nothing like any of the horror movies that have come out this century.  It is a throwback, a wonderful throwback with intertwined mini stories that are perfect for Halloween and for having that fun type of scared a lot of you have been missing.  It introduces a wonderful little scary character named Sam as he takes us through the 4 different Halloween stories.  It mixed those stories nicely into a single movie that will satisfy most old school 80's horror fans.  It executes and presents the stories very well and makes the fear fun again, instead of just an attempt at the scariest things to possibly put on screen.

I can not recommend this movie enough.   I have been waiting for the day this movie gets released on DVD since I saw it, so I could watch it again.  That day is today.  I highly recommend this movie for anyone watching Halloween horror movies.  I will be buying a copy today, and I think you should at least rent it, but I think a lot of you will be buying it after the rental.  It has a ton of re-watch value, and you can show it to all your friends who have never heard of it.  That is what I will be doing this Halloween.

Rated: R

Running Time: 80 Minutes

Release Date: 02-Oct-2009

Nudity: Zombie Boobs

One Sentence: I like funny zombie movies.

I can't tell if this movie had a big budget or a small budget, and that is wonderful for a zombie movie.  The opening sequence feels as though they spent 100 million dollars on this movie and it sets a wonderful tone for the next 80 minutes.  It is an amazing sequence of slow-motion and titles that is my favorite opener of the year.  The rest of the movie is pretty good too.  

A simple mix of humor, zombies, and formula make Zombieland work better than all your other horror/comedies coming out.  Since there are so few however it might be easy to say this is the best horror/comedy of the year.  So let's also say its one of the better movies of the year.  This is a no frills, know exactly what is going to happen at the end of this Zombie movie and you probably won't care, becuase you are laughing all the way through the end of the world.  It was great to see Woody Harrelson and I thought he was great and Jesse Eisenburg backed him up wonderfully.

There is nothing surprising or new about Zombieland but it is still a lot of fun to watch that I will still say check it out.  The title sequence is just amazing and because of that I think you should go see it in the theater if you haven't.  It was the number 1 movie in America this past weekend though so I bet a lot of you have, if you haven't go check it out, I think it's worth the trip. 

Rated: R

Running Time: 120 Minutes

Release Date: 02-Oct-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: I think this is totally worth seeing. 

So about a month ago or so, Goldman Sachs posted the biggest quarter profit for themselves ever, during our recession, after a lot of other banks failed.  Hank Paulson, former Treasury secretary of the United States used to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs.  I didn't know this.  I learned this from watching Capitalism: A Love Story.  I don't give a crap what you think about Michael Moore, if you are pissed about the bailout you should probably watch this movie.

I don't think this is a political issue, this is a, were getting bent over issue, and the things that you just learn about what is going on in the government make you a little upset with this movie.  It makes good points, and brings to light things that will make you upset.  It makes you want to call your congressmen and do the right things in government to make changes.  It makes you more aware.  This is what we need awareness and information. 

Capitalism: A Love Story has told me things that I didn't know and made me mad.  It causes you to write things like this, recommending others to watch it, and to make sure you pay attention to what is going on. I think this was a well made, funny, and scary movie, that I think everyone should watch.  Don't shut out information becuase you think you disagree with it, you might be surprised with how much is in here you do agree with, even if you think you are on the other side of the aisle. 

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Release Date: 2-Oct-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: TXRD!

I live in Austin Texas, where we have 2 different Roller Derby leagues, who alternate seasons, so we practically have full year Roller Derby here.  I am a fan of these awesome girls and their ass-kicking sport.  So I wasn't sure when I heard about the movie, if it was going to be watered down, or if first time director Drew Barrymore would find the pulse that Derby delivers and give it to audiences across the country. 

I don't know if I would say that Whip It delivers the exact hardcore awesomeness of Austin's Roller Derby leagues which the movie takes place in, but it is so damn good that it doesn't matter.  This movie just has a lot going for it and is executed pretty damn well for a first time director.  Coming of age, love, fights, friendship, family and love all intertwine here with a bunch of roller girls kicking ass and having fun.  Everyone in this movie delivers a great performance and just makes every scene the best they can.  Ellen Page is again wonderful and she is backed up by a ton of other talent, that all make Whip It a joy to watch. 

I know there are 3 movies this weekend at least that I would have to pick from, and it would be a hard choice to tell you which one to go to this weekend.  If it were me however, I think I would go with Whip It over the other two.  This movie just is too damn fun to wait on.  So if you like hot girls on wheels skating in a circle, go check out Whip It over Capitalism or The Invention Of Lying.

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 88 Minutes

Release Date: 25-Sep-2009

Nudity: None

One Sentence: Cool Sci-Fi, ok movie. 

I find the situation that occurs in Surrogates to be a very likely type scenario in the future.  It might not be full robotic type thing that act as we are, but something like that seems like it could happen.  A representation of us in a matrix type world, or anything where we are safe and hidden but a surrogate of us is out in the world.  So the idea of Surrogates appealed to me very much.  The idea was well executed and looked very good.  The touches of this new technology in a not that far in the future world was very well done and very believable. 

However this movie I think falls into the thing that a lot of movies falls into, safety.  They get into the safe formula and just follow it to the end.  I think I felt almost like I had seen this movie before in other genres and in sci-fi as well.  There was very little difference here to other movies that seem to deal with these types of issues.  I wouldn't say it made the movie bad, it just didn't do anything unexpected outside of the sci-fi neat surrogate stuff.  

This leaves the movie in the rental category.  There is nothing here that would lead me to tell you, you have to go see this movie in the theater.  There is enough here to say that if you did go to the theater, it would be a good movie experience, but you don't have to go.  So I would just add it to your Netflix queue and have it arrive when it comes out on DVD.  

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

At first this image can be overlooked without a second glance. After some time admiring it, I got caught on the tensions created by the irregular posture of the model, the unexpected and creative use of a helmet on what could be considered a nude portrait (definitely something you don’t see everyday) and the contrast between the model’s skin tone and the prop. A very creative and masterful capture. My Five Stars of the Week.

• 10 Tips to making your first photo book – Beyond Megapixels
• 10 Tipps zur Hochzeitsfotografie (in German) – Kwerfeldein.de
• SoFoBoMo published – A Roadtrop Through SE Australia – Neil Creek
• Help!  I’ve Been Infringed! – Photo Attorney
• Styling: Pure Hell or a place to “shine” – Yuri Arcurs
• Creative Partnerships vs. Self-Motivation – Rasmus Rasmussen
• 5 Tips to Get Followed on Twitter – JMG-Galleries
• Letting Things Marinate – PhotoWalkPro
• Making Fine Art Prints: Signing – Epic Edits (check also the other posts of Brian’s series on Fine Art prints)
• How to Price Assignments: Price High and Give Your Clients an Experience – DSLRBlog

(via Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection)

Yeap, it’s true. As incredible as it may seem, at least to me, PhotoNetCast, the photography podcast hosted by me, Brian Auer, Martin Gommel and Jim Goldstein, just got a bit older. The 28th episode marks our 1 year anniversary.

On a personal level PhotoNetCast has been a fantastic experience. For these 28 episodes, if I count the show prep, recording, editing and publishing, on a quick count, it’s probably more than 200 hours of time invested in this project and worth every minute of it.

Our objective, since the beginning, has been to produce a quality show in which we can openly discuss our ideas and topics that are brought to the table, independently of our point of view. It has not been an easy task with all the hurdles for a beginner in the medium, but personally I’m more than satisfied. I believe that PhotoNetCast is informative and entertaining to listen, and focuses on topics that matter for all photographers, independently of their "level".

PhotoNetCast allowed me to reach to the great photographers and industry professionals we had as guests and learn while they share their opinions. Yes, learn. The show has been a huge learning experience. My appreciation to all of them.

The audience feedback has been superb and it’s all that support that motivates to keep producing and always trying to publish a better podcast, every episode. Thank you. This is what makes me believe that PhotoNetCast is becoming a reference podcast for photography.

And finally, Brian, Jim and Martin: Thank you very much for joining me on this trip. It has been a year of waking up early or staying up late and fighting with sometimes frustrating technical issues, but also a year of great laughs and shared knowledge. Here’s to many more years doing this together.

If you’re still not listening, I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to PhotoNetCast on iTunes, or just grab the regular feed.

Since my last update of the podcast here on the blog, 3 episodes were published:

PhotoNetCast #26 – Going Beyond your Comfort Zone – We tried to discuss how important it is to grow photographically to always try to push yourself, whether with gear or just changing your approach.

PhotoNetCast #27 – HDR Photography – With Dave Wilson as guest, we discuss HDR photography.

PhotoNetCast #28 – Travel Photography – Logistics, preparation, regulations and the actual shooting. How to make the most of your photographic travels.

I hope you enjoy it. And thanks for listening.

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

I have to say that I’ve spent a LONG time admiring this photo. Overall, everything seems right with it. The backlighting creates a perfect mood, and even the light in the curtains looks good. My Five Stars of the Week.

And here is a roundup of some interesting articles from the past days.

Cooking with light… Errr… Lighting with Cookware (Davidejackson) – This one made me laugh. Want to be innovative with your lighting without breaking the bank? What about some cookware as light modifiers?

Camera Corner – Part 1 – My Gear Bag (Zoriah) – Want to see how a photojournalist going to the most troubled areas rolls? I probably take more gear with me to photograph around the corner.

Great Digital Argument #1 – PC vs. Mac. Let The Wars Begin (Digital ProTalk) – David tries to show that the too boring old arguments between Mac and PC users leads nowhere. Main point: use whatever you need to get the job done.

Developing Multiple Streams of Photographic Income (DSLRBlog) – Going pro might mean having more than one income stream from your photography and the trick is diversify.

Photo Project: Symmetry (Beyond Phototips) – If projects is your thing, here is another one with some great potential to tickle your creativity.

My Favorite Film after a Year of Shooting (Epic Edits) – When you dedicate yourself so much to film photography as my good pal Brian has, a list of the true goodies comes out. If you’re into film photography (and you should be once in a while) you have to read this.

Why You’re NOT Making Photo Sales (Photopreneur) – A few simple advices that have the potential to increase your chances of licensing a few of those old images you have laying around on your hard drives.

And that’s it for this week. I haven’t had that much time to read all my favorite blogs, but the gems always pop-up.

As I was writing this small post, I stumbled upon a video demonstrating the capacity of the SprintCam v3 HD by i-movix, a full HD camera capable of capturing up to 1000fps directed at the sports broadcasting and advertising markets. This video was made for the NAB 2009 exhibit by David Coiffier, and you just have to see it.

Visual reality has much to do, not only with the real physical disposition of the world or scene, but also with how it is perceived. Someone with color blindness or some other visual impairment will have a different perception of reality than someone who’s vision is considered normal.

In photography, even if we assume that all film stocks and all digital sensors would capture light the same way, the simple fact that different lenses distort to a certain degree the light, is enough to conclude that photography cannot capture reality, but simply capture light.

What started me thinking…

A few days ago, I was reading a report mentioning how a Danish photographer saw his work disqualified from the Danish version of the “Pictures of the Year” contest. In short, the photojournalist got disqualified when judges requested his RAW files for comparison with the submitted processed images. Although the contest rules mention that "Photos submitted to Picture of The Year must be a truthful representation of whatever happened in front of the camera during exposure. You may post-process the images electronically in accordance with good practice. That is cropping, burning, dodging, converting to black and white as well as normal exposure and color correction, which preserves the image’s original expression.”, it seems that this photojournalist’s processing was too much for the judges.

I’ve passed this story to my twitter followers and this generated a nice discussion, with @marcoschmidt replying “but what’s real? the JPG? with which picture style? the RAW? With which converter? black and white?”

Capturing reality in photojournalism

I firmly believe that if what a photographer is doing is photojournalism, then the final images should indeed resemble as much as possible the original scene notwithstanding any different interpretations that may arise from framing, composition, etc. If too many exceptions are allowed, photojournalism will turn into a field of doubt and many publications have, indeed, strict rules on what is allowed in processing. But asking for the RAW files?!?  I’m not sure I agree with this move. If a photographer messes his exposures and ends up with a RAW that is overexposed, does that mean that the original scene was flooded by light? What if the white balance was not properly set? RAW files are exactly that, the raw information. Even a RAW file, outputted with different converters will originate slightly different images. Note that I’m not defending the photojournalist. I believe that what he saw in those places was probably much close to the unmodified RAW than to the images he submitted for the contest and he tried to make them more appealing. But when documenting something, the appeal should come from the story that photos are trying to tell, from good composition, good lighting, good angles… not from Photoshop. Individual ethics play a major role in photojournalism and I still prefer to believe that photojournalism tries to capture reality.

Photography as an art form

If we look at photography from an artistic point of view, then all of the above does not apply. Photography becomes a tool to express the photographer’s creativity, and it’s up to each individual artist to modify it (or not) as he pleases, in order to pass to an audience (or at least try to) the story he’s trying to tell and elicit emotions. Nobody asked Dalí if he actually saw that  somewhere when he painted “The Railway Station at Perpignan” (one of my favorite works by SD). I can have my personal preferences regarding a certain photographic work or a certain style of photographing or processing, I might like it or not, but no artistic photographer should ever listen that his work is bad because it doesn’t resemble reality.

Photography is not supposed to capture reality, just to capture light.

Twitter me this…

Earlier I asked on Twitter “In 140 chars or less answer this: "Is photography just supposed to capture reality?"

These are some of the replies I got… Interpret and take your own conclusions. Thanks for your thoughts.

@jeffcrossphoto “I think photography is supposed to be an interpretation of reality from the photographer’s point of view.”

@danzphoto “Absolutely not. Did Monet only try to capture reality? Like him, photography also captures mood, feeling, impression.”

@dawilson “Documentary photography is supposed to capture reality as closely as possible given equipment capabilities. / Art photography uses reality as a starting point. What the photographer/artist does with that is entirely up to them.” (Dave cheated and used 2 tweets… That’s ok Dave )

@dwterry “Photography is a tool. It can reflect or augment reality. It can create works of art. It’s all in what you do with it.”

@pawoli “each photo is real, photographers and viewers have their own realities which may differ and evolve over time”

@EricBooth “By no means. IMO photography is an art form. An expression of ones self. I have no problem using all the tools available to me.”

@Raquita “Just capture reality limits its power, I think photographs should live up to the 1000 words thing – tell stories beautifully…”

@Celippitt “Photojournalism is supposed to capture reality…Photography is the process of producing images on photosensitive surfaces.”

@mcgraths “Photography is an art. I think it should be a blend on imagination and reality, but really it is up to the artist.”

Your thoughts?

And how do you mix photography with reality? Should it capture just reality or is it, a tool to be used? Share your thoughts with us…

Photo credits: “reality tag” by Scoobymoo (CC by-nd), “sheffield: what’s your reality?” by paolo màrgari (CC by-nc-nd), “Reality” by Bright Meadow (CC by-sa)

Marjo Sinokki, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Turku, Finland says “It is important to promoto well-being at work in every way and pay attention also to team climate.”

Sinokki’s research team collected data on 3,347 Finnish workers, aged 30 to 64 years old. They asked about team spirit and the quality of communication and also about how they felt about the demands of their jobs.

The participants were asked to rate their workplace according to four phrases:

• “encouraging and supportive of new ideas”
• “prejudiced and conservative”
• “nice and easy”
• “quarrelsome and disagreeing.”

They were also asked about their home and social lives.

The researchers found that of those who thought team spirit was poor, about 60% were more likely to report being depressed and 50% were more likely to take antidepressants than those who rated team spirit as high.

However, Dr. Carole Lieberman, a clinical professor of psychology and stress expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, has some issues with some aspects of the study.

She says, “Although I agree with their conclusion, that poor team climate or office stress is associated with depression, there are problems with this study. The study does not clarify to what degree office stress causes depression, versus to what degree depression causes office stress.”

Even given the criticism of this study, I would say that there is at least some merit to it. I have noticed that I am less happy when part of a negative work environment. I have also noticed that jobs with poor team spirit are more aggravating. This is something to think about if you are stressed out or depressed about your work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any solutions, but awareness and a positive attitude couldn’t hurt.

Reference: MedLine Plus

This is actually my first year watching American Idol. I don’t know why I waited so long. Last night the show was running over the time limit. And most of us who DVRed the show missed Adam’s performance.

I think after last nights performance Adam Lambert is officially a rock star. I have to agree with Simon. Words aren’t really necessary.