What drew you to Turkey?
I came to Turkey for the first time in the winter of 1998 when I was living in Shanghai. I needed a “China break,” spun the globe and my finger landed on Turkey. After a week in Istanbul, I rented a car and drove south and east, getting as far as Antalya on the Mediterranean. During that trip, the Turkey bug bit and I returned each of the next three years, always renting a car and driving—Aegean to eastern Anatolia, the Med to the Black Sea. The Turkish countryside is astoundingly beautiful and varied. I’m drawn by what waits around the next corner.

You’ve visited so many countries, what makes Turkey special? What keeps bringing you back?
After I moved to southeast Asia in 2002, I got sidetracked by the region’s riches and didn’t actually return to Turkey until mid-2010, when I attended the Foundry Photojournalism workshop in Istanbul. Before the workshop, during which I worked on the Istanbul ferry boat piece, my wife and I spent a few weeks driving out east, from Gaziantep to Van and up to Kars, on the Armenian border. It was like a dormant love affair had been rekindled. We wondered why we’d stayed away so long and decided to “give in” to this pull we felt to Turkey. We’ve been back three times since and will spend much more time here in the coming months and years.

Do you have any plans for the many photos you’ve taken in Turkey? Book, galley, etc?
We (my wife, writer Robyn Eckhardt, and I) are in the proposal research phase for a very low-to-the-ground cookbook with stories and photo essays focusing on parts of Turkey away from Istanbul and the well-trod Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. Beyond that, I’m shooting whatever and whomever interests me. I foresee this as a long-term project; I plan to revisit particular people and places again and again over the next 2-3 years.

Have you learned anything from Turkey?
To slow down and ‘roll’ with it. Turks are incredibly hospitable. In earlier trips I might have been shy to accept offers of tea or a home-cooked meal but I’m more relaxed now. These gestures have lead to some amazing experiences.

Do you have a favorite image?
Many (but I’m biased). One in particular is from a tea house in Mardin. The man pictured seemed a little gruff on the surface but I couldn’t resist, so I asked him if I could take a few photos. When he agreed I pulled up a chair across from him and snapped away.

What are some challenges to photographing in Turkey?
Men, in particular, like to have their photos taken but tend to get in these stiff, formal positions. I find that I have to work a little with them to get them back to ‘normal’. Women, on the other hand, often do not like to be photographed so I have to work a little harder so that more of the population is represented in my photos.

Have these photographs resulted in any commercial or editorial work?
I photographed a NYT Travel piece on the emergence of the ancient southeastern town of Mardin as an arts and culture center, and one on Galata, in Istanbul for Food & Wine Magazine. I’m also a contributor to the American online food/wine magazine Zester Daily and have had slideshows on the Black Sea region there.

What have the responses been to the photos so far?
Very good. It’s especially nice to hear from Turks who say that I’ve shown them a side or aspect of their country that they’d not seen.

Any stories that stand out from your time in Turkey?
Many, but one in particular from a trip this past fall on the Black Sea. I was photographing a beautiful old ambar (grain barn) when the barn’s owner came out to ask me what the heck I was doing on her property. Long story short, my admiration of this elderly woman’s storage barn lead to an invitation to lunch in her equally beautiful, 70-year-old timber farmhouse, and a parting gift of walnuts and hazelnuts from her trees. I intend to revisit her and her husband later this year.

View more of David’s work on his website, davidhagermanphotography.com.

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

If our first portfolio review of 2012 was any indication of what’s to come, then we’re in for a fantastic year. We kicked off the New Year by dropping by the agency Tierney, right here in Philadelphia before traveling down to Baltimore to visit our new friends at Tri-Media and FILA.

Our meeting with Tierney was much anticipated. With big local clients such as Independence Blue Cross, PECO, and TD Bank, we were excited to meet the creatives behind the ads and commercials that are so prevalent in our area. Kayleen, Jess and I rolled up with our usual cargo full of fantastic portfolios and photo gear and spread out about 20 books next to delicious catering from DiBruno Bros. After hitting “play” on the iPad reels, we waited for creatives to fill the room.

It was great to see some familiar faces and meet new members of Tierney’s creative team. The room quickly filled with people eager to be introduced to new talent and snag some awesome leave-behinds. We were sure to include portfolios from local photographers such as Ryan Smith and Jeffrey Totaro, while also displaying portfolios from out-of-town shooters like John Schulz, Greg Vore and Roger Hagadone.

Ryan Smith’s portfolio video:

Overall, the meeting went incredibly well. Afterwards, we returned to the office to unpack, reorganize our cases and prepare for our excursion to Baltimore.

Two days later, we were on our way. The grey skies and wet weather didn’t impact our moods as Kayleen and I got an early start for our drive down I-95 towards “Charm City.” As an alum of Baltimore’s Towson University it was great to return to the area and reminisce on my college days. Our first meeting was with Tri-Media, located right in Towson, about 25 minutes north of downtown Baltimore.  Tri-Media is a smaller agency that works in a variety of capacities with clients such as The Discovery Channel and Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzels. We set up shop on their large conference table (with a nice view of my alma mater out the window) and spread out a great selection of work. The agency was pleased to see the work of local shooters such as Dean Alexander, Clark Vandergrift and Steve Buchanan along with other photographers like Adam Ewing, Nick Hall and Leo Gong.

Dean Alexander’s portfolio video:

We chatted about the food companies Snyder’s had recently acquired, and how hopefully this will translate into bigger photo projects. In addition, we talked about their web work for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which seems to be exponentially growing in popularity every year. Really, who doesn’t love watching a shark leap out of water at 2,000 frames per second?!

We wrapped up our visit with Tri-Media around noon, which gave us some time to grab a quick bite and check our email at Buddy Maratta’s Café and Deli by the busy Towson traffic circle. After filling up, we got back on the road to head north to Sparks, MD where FILA is based. For those not familiar with the rural towns outside of Baltimore, the scenery quickly turns from cityscape and gridded streets to horse farms and windy roads. After stopping for a moment to snap some photos in the woods, we reached FILA’s corporate center. We arrived a bit early, so we took a moment to walk around the scenic pond on their attached corporate park, and carefully stepped around the goose droppings (seriously, I’ve never seen that much goose poop).

After thoroughly cleaning the soles of our shoes, we entered FILA’s office and Amy Gray (their director of photography) welcomed us into their conference room to spread out our books. A few other members of FILA’s creative team soon joined us, and we chatted about recent and upcoming projects. FILA shoots a lot of their catalog still life photos in-house, but they have plenty of projects throughout the year that they hire photographers for. Amongst other portfolios was the work of Kevin Winzeler, Laura Barisonzi and Rick Lohre to name a few. After hearing more about their recent projects, we learned that they have international offices that generate their own content for unique projects around the world. While FILA’s Maryland office mainly works on US-based projects, I was happy to present the work of Munich-based Christian Brecheis to elaborate on the vast presence of Wonderful Machine members in international locations.

Rick Lohre’s portfolio video:

A video of the reviews:

After another set of successful meetings under our belt, we were excited to drive down into the heart of Baltimore for a photographer happy hour. We reserved space at one of my favorite spots from my undergrad career, Red Star Bar and Grill, located on the beautiful cobblestone streets of Fell’s Point. The turnout was fantastic, and Dean Alexander, Steve Buchanan, John Davis, Jonathan Hanson and Clark Vandergrift all joined us for a few rounds. Conversation topics included Clark’s competitive cycling career, the local ASMP scene, new studio spaces, and of course, the hot topic of iPad vs print portfolio presentations. Our photographers couldn’t have been friendlier, and it was a fantastic way to end a productive day.

After parting ways, Kayleen and I began our trek up I-95 back towards Philadelphia. Overall, the meetings went incredibly well, everyone was extremely friendly, and it was fantastic to finally put faces to names. The day was a complete success, except for the flat tire I got on the way home…but that’s a different story.

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

I was shooting Houston for Garden & Gun and took my assistant, Sean Johnson, with me to help navigate the hellish traffic and get to where we needed in a totally packed schedule. We had four full days planned ahead of us.

Garden & Gun is based in Charleston, SC, so they had no real sense of the logistical challenges (traffic, large distances) involved with getting to several locations (like 8-9) in Houston in one day. We drove and shot fast and even added to the list when we came across something interesting (like a school bus serving gourmet hamburgers). In the end, we hit so many spots that they ran less than a third of the locations we shot.

In the middle of day three—a Friday—I received a call from Maggie Kennedy, the PE at G&G. She told me that they’d dropped a line to George and Barbara Bush earlier in the week and had just heard back. If I was available, I would need to drive back to Houston the following Monday at 1:15 to take their portrait. They were to be the highlight of “The Locals” section of the article.

I was committed on Monday to photograph a wild pig being field dressed for the book I’m doing with local chef Jesse Griffiths. We were coming up against a deadline for the book and I wasn’t sure we would be able to reschedule. I told Maggie I would call her back, hung up and called my friend—and fellow Wonderful Machiner—Adam Voorhes to get his advice. The conversation went like this:

“I’m supposed to be taking pictures of a hog being gutted, but I can’t pass George and Barabra up can I?”
“No, no you can’t. You’re doing the portrait.”

I called Jesse to reschedule then called Maggie back and told her I was in, gave her our social security numbers so the Secret Service could start a background check on us—and crossed my fingers.

The following Monday we arrived at the Bush’s home in an exclusive gated Houston neighborhood. We were shown to the living room. Lighting was dim and the couches had busy floral patterns and cluttered backdrops with windows. Nothing looked workable. Luckily, I’d seen a loveseat in the hallway. We were allowed to move it into a position by a window. Not a moment later the president arrived with his aid, and Barbara quickly followed.

We had been told we had 10 minutes. So we quickly tied back the drapes with the strap from my camera bag, opened up the pocket doors that led to the dining room and asked the aid to open the door behind us to the garden to allow more light in. Sean held a large reflector to get some fill on the left side of the frame. I set up on a tripod shooting at 1600 ASA at and around 2.8 w a 40mm lens on my 5D MKII. I tried two camera positions (horizontal and vertical) and fired around 500 frames in less than 5 minutes.

After we were done, the president headed back to work with his aid, but Barbara stayed to chat a few minutes and to give Sean a hard time about his tattoos:

Barbara: “Are you married?”
Sean: “No, Ma’am”
Barbara: “We’ll, you aren’t ever going to be with those…. Let’s see,” she said, reaching out her hand to hold his and get a better look. “What does your mom think about these?”
Sean: “She doesn’t care for them, but my grandmother loves them; thinks they’re beautiful.”

Barbara raises an eyebrow and stares at Sean a few moments, “Well, do you think she’s maybe a little…? (twirls her finger by her head in the gesture for “crazy”)

View more of Jody’s work on his website, jodyhorton.com.

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

Meeta K Wolff

But first, a little about Meeta! Originally from India, Meeta has been living and shooting in Germany for the past 17 years. She’s not only an accomplished food photographer and stylist, but a popular writer as well. Her food blog, What’s For Lunch, Honey? has been nominated for several awards and is listed on the Times Online’s Top 50 Food Blogs. Meeta’s also had her writings published in Foodies of the World As a writer her work has been published in the book Foodies of the World.

Meeta K Wolff

Now back to the workshops. Your first opportunity to learn from Meeta in at the beautiful Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai at her Food Photography and Styling Workshop. This April 3-4, 2012 workshop is limited to only 10 participants and is ideally suited for food bloggers looking to take their photos to the next level.

The course will cover basic and advanced styling, presentation and photography through hands-on exercises including a market visit and restaurant meal. View the full program outline and register here.

Meeta K Wolff

Next, Meeta is jet setting to Somerset, UK and meeting up with fellow Wonderful Machiner Ilva Berreta for the From Plate to Page Food Photography and Writing Workshop. From Plate to Page is an exclusive, 2.5 day program that covers food styling, photography and writing skills. The workshop aims to help participants find their style and voice.

Meeta and Ilva will be teaching alongside several other talented photographers/writers including Huffington Post food contributor, Jamie Schler, and award winning food blogger, Jeanne Horak-Druiff.  The program is aimed at food photographers, writers and bloggers.

Ilva Beretta

Interested? There are still a few slots left. You can register here. The dates of From Plate to Page are May 18-21, 2012.

You can view more of Meeta’s work on her website, meetakwolff.com.

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

When asked about the image, David had this to say,

The idea for the shoot came about from one of my assistants who surfed, and he told me about a friend of his that had a “rad van” that they traveled in.  It was a self-assigned shoot, the idea being to capture the start or finish of a day of surfing. We really just let them do their thing, getting ready and taking the boards in and out of the van. It was my assistant Phil Fox, who saw the parking lot and puddles and mentioned to me that it might make for a good setup.  We walked over, I saw the light, and then moved the van to that location to shoot what I saw.

View more of David’s awesome work on his website, davidfosterphotography.com.

If you’re a creative and you didn’t get a copy of our post card, email us your address and we’ll send you one.

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

PressPlayPause.

BMW and Audi have at it.

Audi vs. BMW? General Lee stays above the fray. photo by Douglas Sonders/Washington DC

Logos as seen by a 5 year-old.

To the next burglar…

Smart phone photography tips.

Word to the wise: Do NOT eat the burgers in Japan!

Word to the wise: Stay OUT of the Everglades!

Save the pythons! Well, their skins at least. photo by Eli Maier/New York

Copyright to all photos shall be owned by Lady Gaga.

Photographers Update:

• FACES, a video by Stephanie Rau.
• Laura Barisonzi featured in Popular Photography.
• Christian Anderl presents the Centao Addicted official music video.
• Bret Edge is opening a gallery.

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

Enjoy!

- Maria Luci

How did you end up in your current role at Country Living?

I’ve been at Country Living for about a year. Going into photography was not my plan—my background is in international finance. When I was a senior in college, I had a yearning to do something more creative than sitting at a desk crunching numbers all day. Luckily, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to work as a 2^nd photo assistant on a still life job. I’d always had a strong interest in photography, but working on set for the first time made me consider a change in direction. After that job was up I just started looking for more freelance jobs. I eventually took a full-time assisting job with the photographer Keate Barker.  After some time with him, I felt like I needed to move on to something on the client side. There was an opening at Studio D, an in-house photography studio for Hearst. After working at Studio D as the photo editor for a little over a year, I heard about an opening at Country Living—a Hearst publication—and decided to go over to the magazine world.

What makes a photo great to you?

What makes a great photo to me? Great question. I don’t think there is any particular all encompassing attribute for a great photograph. If I had to choose, I think it would be the details. If a photo has great details, I am drawn to it! I need to be able to see that great effort was put into the composition of the photo. I look for that one pop of color that my eye is drawn to or the sun being dappled on water. Any photo can be great. It’s the little details that ushers the photo to life.

What kind of photos do you look for at Country Living?

Above all, we look for beautiful and real images. Nothing is too staged because we really want a sense of life in each photograph.

Andy Reynolds for Country Living

What’s the best way to get your attention?

The best way is to have an interesting personal project. An excellent example would be Jesse Rieser. He has two personal projects, Christmas in America and Class of 99 turns 30. Christmas in America really captures the essence of Christmas and tells the story about its over commercialization. It’s a little dark with those great artificial plastic pops of color. Class of 99 turns 30 tells the story of how his classmates’ lives turned out. Everyone went down different paths. As soon as I saw this story, it made me think; how have the lives of all the people that I graduated with turned out? This personal connection with his stories is what lead me to hire Jesse.

How does Country Living source photography? Has finding decent photographers become easier or harder in the digital age?

We have a roster of our favorite photographers that we use on our feature stories. We have many little shoots all over the country that we hire local photographers for. Sometimes we will use stock, but we don’t like it to look too “stocky.”

Well, I can’t say if it is harder or easier because I am a product of the digital age. So I really can’t compare them. One thing I can say is that having every photographer’s website at my fingertips is wonderful. We have many shoots all around the country in small towns. The Internet is the only hope I have in finding photographers in these areas of the country.  There’s also nothing that impresses me more than when I meet with a photographer to review his or her book and an iPad is pulled out. It just makes viewing a photographer’s work so much easier and it shows that the photographer likes to keep things simple. Digital has definitely made my life easier.

Hollis Bennett for Country Living - Hatch Show Print

What annoys you the most?

Without a doubt, the answer is slow websites. The photographer can have great work, but if his or her site is too slow, I will move on. A photographer’s site is in many ways their best resource to procure work. If it’s too slow, then they are losing out!

What’s the most satisfying part of your day?

The most satisfying part of my day is when I am able to write an email to the art department stating that hi res is in. It means that the story is done and ready to be put to bed.

View all of our past art buyer, photo editor and rep interviews here.

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

Their pink flamingo covered issue includes Suzanne’s article, “The New Repping Agency Model.” The feature highlights Wonderful Machine along with several other companies taking unique approaches to repping, estimating and production.

Our second pat on the back comes from the new UK magazine, Hungry Eye. Hungry Eye is a monthly publication that features articles concerning the photography and film-making industry. Their second issue—covered by the ever-so-handsome David Beckham!—includes a Pricing and Negotiating article written by our very own lead producer, Jess Dudley. (Jess’ pricing articles are also featured monthly on the uber popular photo blog, A Photo Editor). Jess’ Hungry Eye article, “The Price Is Right” walks the reader through his estimating process on a recent multi-media shoot.

Pick up a copy of Hungry Eye and Resource today to check us out!

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com

Intermark’s SUPe Store print ad concepts revolved around promoting what’s called the “Book Rush.” To do this, they came up with the idea to have students chasing a giant book mascot around the campus. In September, James and his team made their way to the University’s campus to scout and photograph locations. Then they hit the drawing boards, creating three scenarios. Soon after, it was time for the actual shoot, which they had to accomplish at first without the mascot (who was still being built!),

With roughed out concepts, we hit the studio on campus in mid-November where we proceeded to photograph the students. When photographing and building composite imagery, the students (models) really had to engage their imaginations in order to pull off what we needed in camera. With not much else to go on but instruction from Jason, Noah, and myself they actually did a fantastic job! We had fun trying to verbally describe the scenes to the students prior to taking their pictures. These kids were game and we had them flying onto mattresses, jumping off chairs, rolling on the floor, simulating repelling of a building, catching invisible books, etc..

As the day progressed, I was able to show the later groups some samples of our work on the computer screens to help demonstrate what we were after, but they really didn’t need it—except to maybe reassure them we weren’t completely crazy.

After a very full day of shooting, James headed back to the office to begin the laborious task of compositing the many images together,

We ended up have a very tight deadline so sorting, selecting and rough assembly was all completed in a matter of days. Another couple of days were needed for the final touches and changes that had to be made due to the thirty plus layouts that were needed for the full campaign. One challenge was creating images that could fit into nearly thirty different layouts. So I was tasked with delivering a few different options of each scenario.

An animation of one of the images coming together—it’s probably 16+ hours of work condensed into a few seconds!

All of his hard work paid off though, with the final ads recently being rolled out. Intermark was very pleased with the images, but nothing can compare to how happy the SUPe Store and UA students were with their new campaign,

This concept and execution—and budget!—was something they had never come close to using previously.  I think their earlier campaigns consisted mainly of clip art and maybe some stock imagery. So they really trusted us to deliver and they’ve been real happy with the response.  The cool thing is we used students that get a chance to see themselves all over campus now.  I actually got this message from the client on my Facebook page: “Hey you! Everyone LOVES the photos/ads with our book. :) They are so awesome! Thank you so much for everything. Good times. (and Roll Tide!)”

View more of James’ work on his website, quantzphoto.com.

- Maria Luci

Wonderful Machine Photography Blog | Permalink | 610.260.0200 | Wonderfulmachine.com