“Magic hour is a time that I always strive for and work around,” observes Memphis-based architectural photographer Jeffrey Jacobs (www.jeffreyjacobsphoto.com). “I arrive at the location before sunset (or before sunrise, as the situation warrants). After 10am, depending on the time of year, the usable light is pretty...
Tony Arrasmith is a master at creating composite images.
His attention to detail is what draws clients to his Cincinnati studio. A long-time ASMP member, he operates Arrasmith & Associates (www.tonyarrasmith.com) in partnership with Sarah O’Dell, who manages the studio and coordinates projects. The studio has...
He figured he'd be one of the last of the holdouts. "When the whole digital revolution started, I thought I'd be the last guy to be shooting digital," David Alan Harvey says. Then along came an offer he didn't want to refuse. "Nikon was working on an ad campaign for their D100, and they asked me if I'd go down to Mexico and shoot with the...
"How do you get a handle on telling the story of life on earth in images? It took tons of research to master the material."
For his most recent book, Life: A Journey Through Time, Frans Lanting traveled, researched, and photographed for over six years, but when you consider that his goal was to document the story of life on earth, it seems a reasonable amount...
"None of my sample albums have family formal shots. I intentionally leave them out because they're not what I specialize in."
"A lot of it comes down to your client's expectations before the wedding," Mike Colon says of his relationship to the bride and groom. "You have to talk about what they're really expecting, what...
The personal project always finds you. It's never the other way around. We can't remember a pro shooter ever saying anything along the lines of, "I went looking for a labor of love." Maybe it's a subject you've been doing for years and suddenly realize how much you enjoy doing it. Or maybe you decide it's time to bring it to a wider...
"I built my name and reputation on safety and doing things legally, with permission."
Location is everything, and Peter B. Kaplan built his career on getting to places others couldn't...or wouldn't. Although there are images taken from blimps, balloons, and helicopters, the majority of his photographs are taken from rooftops, scaffolds, antenna...
"Another photographer will say, `I don't know anything about figure skating,' and I'll tell him, `Well, here's what's going to happen; here's what to watch for.'"
Funny how things work out sometimes.
Dave Black majored in commercial graphics design and studio drawing at Southern Illinois...
"With the alternative processes, you can see someone's hand at work. It's a very personal way of creating a photograph."
Most of us are finding more of everything thanks to digital imaging technology, but for some photographers, the essentials are getting scarce. Jill Enfield, for example, for whom it's not a question of cameras--she uses...
Best known for her images of global health issues, photojournalist Karen Kasmauski often finds herself in the world's hot zones, but she says the work she does isn't dangerous...until it is. One moment you're fine; the next, there's trouble, and you never saw it coming. "It's always...
The difference is not always skill. Success as a pro shooter takes talent, but, as Rosanne Pennella says, "there are many excellent photographers who cannot make a name for themselves because they cannot figure out how to market themselves and project mastery of their careers."
Eleven years ago Rosanne was an attorney whose first love was not the law.
Some years ago Steve Simon took a leave from his job as a newspaper photographer in his native Canada and headed south across the border on a self-assigned project. “I’d loved photography since I was a kid in Montreal, roaming the streets, inspired by Cartier-Bresson,” Simon says, “but I’d been working 10 years at the newspaper, doing the same things again and again. I was looking for a way to get the inspiration back, to explore the power of what photography can be.”
“I don’t have a favorite location. I just like the challenge of where I go and what I’m presented with on any given assignment,” advertising photographer Brian Bailey declares. One assignment lasting 10 days took Bailey to the Galapagos Islands, for a sunglasses company. But many assignments involve anything but sun-drenched conditions. In fact, the road to this point was a rocky one—of sorts…
You can’t simply walk into an Operating Room (OR) and insinuate yourself into the scene. There are rules, there are boundaries. Greg Shapps knows them well. Still, he manages to produce telling images that convey the client’s message without blatantly advertising any product or service. The methodology involves a complete 180 from the way he approaches his small product photography, where the message is unmistakably to buy a specific product. His healthcare imagery is nuanced, often depicting healthcare givers and receivers alike. Specific products are not necessarily the focus. It’s more about what a product, service, or institution can do for the individual.
Chicago-based food photographer Jeff Kauck (www.jeffkauckphotography.com) developed his artistic eye through years of training as a watercolorist. While attending Central Academy of Commercial Art, in Cincinnati, where he also studied advertising, “I picked up my father’s camera—a twin-lens Rolleiflex—and really enjoyed playing with it. And to help support myself through art school, I did a lot of color printing for a wedding photographer.” But he soon realized that his time and talent were better spent on photography than painting. And Cincinnati proved to be the perfect location for a start-up food studio, since it was the home of Procter & Gamble, which became his first client, and a major one at that. But a larger market—Chicago—beckoned to him after 18 years, so he made the move and hasn’t looked back.